Ecological Impact of Artificial Light at Night: Effective Strategies and Measures to Deal with Protected Species and Habitats
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Legislation
2.1. European Legislation
- “avoid activities that could seriously disturb the species or damage the habitats for which the site is designated”;
- “take positive measures, if necessary, to maintain and restore these habitats and species to improve conservation”.
2.2. Swedish Legislation
3. Best Practice Guidelines for Outdoor Lighting within Protected or Sensitive Environments
3.1. Light Sources, Lighting Design and Technology
3.2. Scheduled Lighting Operations and Curfews to Support Dark Periods
3.3. Recommended Maximum Amount of Light for Different Functions
4. Environmental Lighting Zones
5. Species and Group Priorities
6. Sensitivity of Environments and Ecosystems to Light Pollution
6.1. City Centres and Towns
6.2. Urban Environments
6.3. Rural Areas
6.4. Forest Ecosystems
6.5. Aquatic Environments
7. Landscape Ecology and Artificial Lighting
- Area brightness. The first approach is to quantify and classify areas by ambient brightness and/or luminance levels. Protected natural environments exposed to artificial lighting need to be surveyed and the proportion of brightness quantified by, for example, on-site measurements (see Section 8). It is possible to use various data on light pollution [103] or develop maps with more local information, see e.g., [102]. It is also important to consider skyglow and predicted changes in lighting strategies in the investigation area.
- Light inflation. As both newly built and existing built areas usually increase lighting amount and use over time, it is useful to consider light inflation in the investigation area. It is likely that field measurements or maps at the landscape level will age relatively quickly (unless local regulations are introduced to limit light pollution).
- Dead ecological zones. These are areas that cannot be used by some species because they are over-illuminated or because they are isolated geographically, for example, by continuous light barriers.
- Vacuuming cleaner effect. This effect arises because some species, such as moths and birds, can be attracted to very low amounts of light at very long distances and will disappear from these areas and concentrate in light-intensive areas [104]. Luminaires with high wattage situated high above the ground, such as sports lighting, floodlights, car park lighting or shopping centre lighting, may induce the vacuum cleaner effect over large areas.
- Barrier effects. When exterior lighting is used to create continuous paths or transport corridors for humans, the lighting causes barriers for species requiring darkness to migrate or forage. Continuous and linear light barriers can be found when road or street lighting separate habitats and their connectivity so that animals or organisms cannot cross due to light avoidance or aversion, e.g., [105].
- Migration distance and habitat network. An essential landscape quality is that endangered species can survive and disperse between habitats, thus spreading through a habitat network. If the migration distance is known, it is possible to model habitat networks for sensitive species in geographically based information systems to ensure protected habitats are connected and not separated by light barriers.
- Dark areas. There are many benefits in identifying and ensuring the conservation of dark areas, since darkness is a time for rest and recovery in organisms with circadian rhythms and because dark areas support nocturnal or crepuscular organisms’ activity and survival.
- Buffer zones. Protected or sensitive environments may require extra protection in the form of buffer zones with restrictions on outdoor lighting if there is a risk of ecological impact from light [21] or stated requirements to reduce light pollution at the landscape level.
- Water environments. Water surfaces and shiny surfaces reflect light and can have higher luminance and ecological impact than other surface types. The influence of artificial light from static or permanent lighting in such areas could also be higher compared with other natural environments, since there are also other disturbances occurring, such as motor vehicles and their lighting.
8. Measuring the Ecological Impact of Artificial Light
8.1. Current Methods
8.2. Recommendations for Field Measurements
9. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Conflicts of Interest
References
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Ecological Impacts | Functional Impacts |
---|---|
Mortality | Species attracted to light may be killed |
Migration | Artificial light disturbs natural movement patterns, migration and orientation |
Population size | Reduced or increased foraging because of presence of light |
Indirect competition | Light can benefit certain species at the expense of others |
Communication | Light can disturb species communication |
Health and circadian rhythm | Light can influence various physiological processes that can impact health and circadian rhythm |
Area | Shielding | Light Source | Maximum Illuminance (lux) * | Pole Height (m) |
---|---|---|---|---|
Buildings | FCO or SCO | Amber LED | ~2 | 2.5 |
Car parks | FCO or SCO | Amber LED | ~3 | 6 |
Paths, bicycle and pedestrian lanes | FCO or SCO | Amber LED | ~1 | 1 |
Property (private and others) | ||||
Door lights | FCO or SCO | No broad-spectrum LED or CMH | <3 | 1.5 |
Garden lights | FCO or SCO | No broad-spectrum LED or CMH | <3 | 6 |
Zone | Lighting Environment | Examples | Bortle Dark-Sky Class |
---|---|---|---|
E0 | Intrinsically dark | IDA Dark Sky Parks, areas dark enough to see the Milky Way. | Class 1. Excellent dark sky. |
E1 | Dark | Relatively uninhabited rural areas. | Classes 2–3. Dark and rural with small amounts of lighting. |
E2 | Low district brightness | Sparsely inhabited areas. | Classes 4–5. Rural transition and suburban with little lighting. |
E3 | Medium district brightness | Well-inhabited rural and urban settlements. | Classes 6–7. Light suburban sky and suburban-urban transition. |
E4 | High district brightness | Town and city centres and other commercial areas. | Classes 8–9. City sky and city centres. Very bright. |
Species and Groups | Potential Ecological Impacts of Artificial Light at Night (ALAN) |
---|---|
Nocturnal or crepuscular species | ALAN can result in decreased time and area for night-time activities important for survival, which can result in lower fitness and survival rates. |
Vulnerable habitats | ALAN can result in an unusual high impact. |
Migrational or seasonal movements | ALAN can result in unwanted impact on migration or seasonal movements, which are vulnerable periods in life cycles. |
Positive or negative phototaxis | ALAN may cause ecological traps by attracting species with positive phototaxis, resulting in high mortality. |
Endangered species | ALAN may decrease the species area of activities for species with negative phototaxis, which can cause lower fitness and survival rates. |
Key ecosystem functions | In endangered or threatened species, ALAN may act as an additional or cumulative disturbance, resulting in further degradation of habitats and a potential detrimental impact on species. |
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Jägerbrand, A.K.; Bouroussis, C.A. Ecological Impact of Artificial Light at Night: Effective Strategies and Measures to Deal with Protected Species and Habitats. Sustainability 2021, 13, 5991. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13115991
Jägerbrand AK, Bouroussis CA. Ecological Impact of Artificial Light at Night: Effective Strategies and Measures to Deal with Protected Species and Habitats. Sustainability. 2021; 13(11):5991. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13115991
Chicago/Turabian StyleJägerbrand, Annika K., and Constantinos A. Bouroussis. 2021. "Ecological Impact of Artificial Light at Night: Effective Strategies and Measures to Deal with Protected Species and Habitats" Sustainability 13, no. 11: 5991. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13115991