Ecological Consequences of Artificial Night Lighting

One of the less obvious effects of population growth is that a vastly increased proportion of the Earth is now illuminated at night, with increasingly powerful lights. This book will provide the first reference on the profound effects that these lights have on plants, animals, and whole ecosystems. The best-known research on this topic has focused on birds and sea turtles. But artificial lighting also affects other species in ways that are less well-known: foraging behavior of amphibians is altered, lights affect the dispersal patterns young cougars, and fireflies may be inhibited from finding mates. Because of the tremendous prevalence of night lights, and because of the intricate (and often poorly understood) interactions of different life forms, these impacts are far-reaching, affecting not only survival of various species, but also influencing adaptations and evolution. These are important issues for people who are researching and working to protect biodiversity. To date, research on the impacts of artificial light has been isolated within taxonomic specialties, with no synthesis of overall effects of the loss of natural darkness on ecological communities. This volume will help to remedy the information need.