Departamento de Física Aplicada, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela (USC), Santiago de Compostela, 15782 Galicia Spain.
ISTIL Istituto di Scienza e Tecnologia dell'Inquinamento Luminoso-Light Pollution Science and Technology Institute, Via Roma, 13 - I 36016 Thiene, Italy.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2023 Dec 18;378(1892):20220352. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2022.0352. Epub 2023 Oct 30.
Light pollution is the alteration of the natural levels of darkness by an increased concentration of light particles in the night-time environment, resulting from human activity. Light pollution is profoundly changing the night-time environmental conditions across wide areas of the planet, and is a relevant stressor whose effects on life are being unveiled by a compelling body of research. In this paper, we briefly review the basic aspects of artificial light at night as a pollutant, describing its character, magnitude and extent, its worldwide distribution, its temporal and spectral change trends, as well as its dependence on current light production technologies and prevailing social uses of light. It is shown that the overall effects of light pollution are not restricted to local disturbances, but give rise to a global, multiscale disruption of the night-time environment. This article is part of the theme issue 'Light pollution in complex ecological systems'.
光污染是指由于人类活动，导致夜间环境中光粒子浓度增加，从而改变了自然黑暗水平。光污染正在深刻地改变地球上广泛地区的夜间环境条件，它是一种相关的压力源，其对生命的影响正在被大量引人注目的研究揭示出来。在本文中，我们简要回顾了作为污染物的人工夜间光的基本方面，描述了它的特性、强度和范围、它在世界范围内的分布、它的时间和光谱变化趋势，以及它对当前灯光生产技术和普遍的灯光使用的依赖。结果表明，光污染的整体影响不仅局限于局部干扰，还会导致夜间环境的全球性、多尺度破坏。本文是主题为“复杂生态系统中的光污染”的一部分。
