Owens Avalon C S, Lewis Sara M
Department of Biology, Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155-5801, USA.
R Soc Open Sci. 2022 Aug 10;9(8):220468. doi: 10.1098/rsos.220468. eCollection 2022 Aug.
Anthropogenic light pollution is a novel environmental disruption that affects the movement, foraging and mating behaviour of nocturnal animals. Most of these effects are sublethal, and their net impact on reproductive fitness and population persistence is often extrapolated from behavioural data. Without dedicated tracking of wild individuals, however, it is impossible to predict whether populations in light-polluted habitats will decline or, instead, move to shaded refuges. To disentangle these conflicting possibilities, we investigated how artificial light affects mating and movement in North American , a genus of bioluminescent fireflies known to experience courtship failure under artificial light. The degree to which artificial light reduced mate success depended on the intensity of the light treatment, its environmental context, and the temporal niche of the species in question. In the laboratory, direct exposure to artificial light completely prevented mating in semi-nocturnal . In the field, artificial light had little impact on the movement or mate success of local and but strongly influenced mate location in ; all three species are relatively crepuscular. Our nuanced results suggest greater appreciation of behavioural diversity will help insect conservationists and dark sky advocates better target efforts to protect at-risk species.
人为光污染是一种新型的环境干扰，它会影响夜行性动物的活动、觅食和交配行为。这些影响大多是亚致死性的，其对繁殖适应性和种群持续性的净影响通常是从行为数据推断出来的。然而，如果没有对野生个体进行专门追踪，就无法预测光污染栖息地中的种群是否会减少，或者它们是否会迁移到阴暗的避难所。为了理清这些相互矛盾的可能性，我们研究了人造光如何影响北美萤火虫属的交配和活动，已知该属萤火虫在人造光下求偶会失败。人造光降低交配成功率的程度取决于光照处理的强度、其环境背景以及所研究物种的时间生态位。在实验室中，直接暴露在人造光下完全阻止了半夜行性萤火虫的交配。在野外，人造光对当地萤火虫的活动或交配成功率影响不大，但对另一种萤火虫的配偶定位有很大影响；这三个物种都相对喜欢在黄昏时分活动。我们细致入微的研究结果表明，更深入地了解行为多样性将有助于昆虫保护主义者和暗夜倡导者更好地确定保护濒危物种的目标。
