Environment and Sustainability Institute, University of Exeter, Penryn, Cornwall TR10 9EZ, UK.
Biol Lett. 2012 Oct 23;8(5):764-7. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2012.0216. Epub 2012 May 23.
Artificial lighting has been used to illuminate the nocturnal environment for centuries and continues to expand with urbanization and economic development. Yet, the potential ecological impact of the resultant light pollution has only recently emerged as a major cause for concern. While investigations have demonstrated that artificial lighting can influence organism behaviour, reproductive success and survivorship, none have addressed whether it is altering the composition of communities. We show, for the first time, that invertebrate community composition is affected by proximity to street lighting independently of the time of day. Five major invertebrate groups contributed to compositional differences, resulting in an increase in the number of predatory and scavenging individuals in brightly lit communities. Our results indicate that street lighting changes the environment at higher levels of biological organization than previously recognized, raising the potential that it can alter the structure and function of ecosystems.
人工照明已经被用于照亮夜间环境数百年，并且随着城市化和经济发展而不断扩展。然而，由此产生的光污染的潜在生态影响最近才成为一个主要的关注问题。虽然调查已经表明，人工照明可以影响生物的行为、繁殖成功率和存活率，但没有研究表明它是否正在改变群落的组成。我们首次表明，无脊椎动物群落的组成受到与街灯距离的影响，而与一天中的时间无关。五个主要的无脊椎动物类群导致了组成上的差异，结果是在光照强烈的群落中，捕食者和食腐动物的个体数量增加。我们的研究结果表明，与之前认为的相比，街灯改变了更高层次的生物组织环境，这增加了它可能改变生态系统结构和功能的可能性。
