How does light pollution affect the natural world?Asked by @sallythewise- - -A little bit of contex
How does light pollution affect the natural world?Asked by @sallythewise- - -A little bit of context for anyone who has never heard of the term before, light pollution is the brightening of the night sky due to the excessive use of artificial light, which affects the natural world in multiple ways. It arises as the side effect of urbanization, with residential structures, office towers, outdoor advertising, and countless other man-made objects as its source.This is a fairly recent phenomenon, considering the lightbulb was only commercialized over a century ago. As the light from below illuminates the clouds, the stars become obscured, affecting the lives of nocturnal creatures which depend on them to navigate their way through the night.Image: The constellation Orion photographed from a dark environment (left) compared to a metropolitan area (right) - Credit: Jeremy StanleyMoths naturally orient themselves by flying at a certain angle relative to a distant light source, such as the moon. Light sources that are within their reach confuse them, causing them to fly in circular motion until they are killed by the heat. Some predators like bats, however, take advantage of this change and feed near street lights instead.Even in aquatic environments which we think are not directly impacted by the light, various creatures become disoriented by our artificial “stars”. Beachfront resort lights have been observed to make sea turtles more reluctant to nest, putting more pressure to the already endangered reptiles. Water fleas (Daphnia) have been observed to shift the depth they live in due to artificial lights, and their vertical position within a water body affects the distribution of algae they feed on – which in turn affects the quality of the water and the lives of any creature living in it. This suggests that there are more subtle ways light pollution impacts our environment which we are still learning about.- - -Main image credit: Petr Kratochvil -- source link
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