Artificial Light Masks Natural Light Cycles, Affects Both Human and Animal Behavior

Natural light cycles have been obscured for years by artificial light used at night. According to experts, this has an impact on both human and animal behavior.

Numerous nocturnal animal behaviors and many others like them have evolved to benefit from the night's darkness.

However, the presence and use of artificial lighting today put them at greater risk.

Fundamentally, nighttime artificial lighting obscures the cycles of day and night. Its presence can impede the Moon's regular cycle and muddle the change from day to night.

Dramatic behavioral and physiological effects include the alteration of hormones linked to some species' seasonal reproduction and day-night cycles, as well as the timing of daily activities like foraging, sleeping, and mating.

One of the quickly progressing global pollutants is artificial light at night, which is both intensifying and spreading, with estimates suggesting 2% to 6% increase, annually.

Its presence has been connected to declines in biodiversity and changes in the composition of animal communities.

Effects on Animals

There are attractive and repulsive effects of nighttime lighting.

Artificial lighting frequently attracts animals that live near urban areas. Turtles have the ability to leave the protection of the oceans and travel inland, where they run the risk of being hit by a car or drowning in a pool.

Millions of birds are thought to be injured or killed every year as a result of being caught in the light of bright city lights. They are either pulled back from their natural migration routes into urban environments with scarce resources and food, as well as more predators, or they become disoriented and crash into brightly lit structures.

Other animals, like bats or small mammals, may avoid lights altogether or show caution around them.

As a result, there are fewer habitats and resources for them to live in and reproduce.

When a light, rather than a road, cut through the darkness necessary for these species' natural habitat, it destroys their habitat, which is why street lamps are a form of habitat destruction.

Wildlife might not have a choice but to leave, whereas humans can go home and turn off the lights.

There are some advantages to nighttime light for some species.

Species that are generally nocturnal can extend their foraging period. Because they can gorge themselves on the swarms of insects that lights attract, nocturnal spiders and geckos gravitate toward areas near them.

Although these species might appear to benefit, there may still be hidden costs.

Researchers have found that nighttime light exposure can have an impact on an insect or spider's growth, development, and reproductive success.

Read also: Artificial Light Pollution: What is It and How Does it Affect our Environment? 

Possible Solution

During the turtle nesting season, many Florida urban beaches switch to amber lighting and turn off the street lights.

Many new street lights are also amber and are turned off along well-known migration pathways during the fledging period on Philip Island in Victoria, which is home to more than a million short-tailed shearwaters, in order to reduce deaths.

For 20 minutes at a time, the Tribute in Light in New York is turned off to let lost birds and bats fly away and to lessen the structure's attraction to migratory animals.

In every instance, these techniques have lessened the ecological harm that night lighting causes while also preserving the lives of countless animals.

Although these focused actions are successful, they do not address what may turn out to be another global biodiversity crisis.

Although many nations have outdoor lighting standards and numerous independent guidelines have been written, these are frequently subject to interpretation and are not always enforceable, The Conversation reported.

Related article: According To Study, Monarch Butterflies Might Become Disoriented as a Result of Light Pollution