11 pressing research questions on how light pollution affects biodiversity

Authors

• Franz Holker, Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries
• Janine Bolliger, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research
• Thomas W. Davies, School of Biological and Marine Sciences
• Simone Giavi, Agroecology and Environment
• Andreas Jechow, Helmholtz Centre Potsdam - German Research Centre for Geosciences
• Gregor Kalinkat, Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries
• Travis Longcore, University of California at Los Angeles
• Kamiel Spoelstra, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
• Svenja Tidau, School of Biological and Marine Sciences
• Marcel E. Visser, Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences
• Eva Knopp, Netherlands Institute of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW), Wageningen, Netherlands

ORCID

• Thomas W. Davies: 0000-0002-4673-9893

Abstract

Artificial light at night (ALAN) is closely associated with modern societies and is rapidly increasing worldwide. A dynamically growing body of literature shows that ALAN poses a serious threat to all levels of biodiversity—from genes to ecosystems. Many “unknowns” remain to be addressed however, before we fully understand the impact of ALAN on biodiversity and can design effective mitigation measures. Here, we distilled the findings of a workshop on the effects of ALAN on biodiversity at the first World Biodiversity Forum in Davos attended by several major research groups in the field from across the globe. We argue that 11 pressing research questions have to be answered to find ways to reduce the impact of ALAN on biodiversity. The questions address fundamental knowledge gaps, ranging from basic challenges on how to standardizelight measurements, through the multi-level impacts on biodiversity, to opportunities and challenges for more sustainable use.

DOI Link

10.3389/fevo.2021.767177

Publication Date

2021-12-08

Publication Title

Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution

Volume

9

Acceptance Date

2021-11-17

Deposit Date

2021-11-18

Embargo Period

2021-12-09

Funding

The contributions of GK, AJ, and FH were supported by the projects “species protection through environmental friendly lighting” by the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) within the framework of the Federal Programme for Biological Diversity with funds from the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU; FKZ: 3518685A08) and “Beleuchtungsplanung: Verfahren und Methoden für eine naturschutzfreundliche Beleuchtungsgestaltung” by the BfN with funds from the BMU (FKZ: 3521 84 1000). The contributions of ST and TD were supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (grant no. NE/S003533/2 awarded to TD. The publication of this article was funded by the Open Access Publishing funds of the Leibniz Association and Agroscope.

Keywords

ecological light pollution, biodiversity loss, thresholds, traits, populations, ecosystems

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Holker, F., Bolliger, J., Davies, T., Giavi, S., Jechow, A., Kalinkat, G., Longcore, T., Spoelstra, K., Tidau, S., Visser, M., & Knopp, E. (2021) '11 pressing research questions on how light pollution affects biodiversity', Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 9. Available at: 10.3389/fevo.2021.767177