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Quantifying the attractiveness of broad-spectrum street lights to aerial nocturnal insects

Wakefield, Andrew; Broyles, Moth; Stone, Emma L.; Harris, Stephen; Jones, Gareth

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Authors

Andrew Wakefield

Moth Broyles

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Dr Emma Stone Emma4.Stone@uwe.ac.uk
Senior Lecturer Environmental Biology

Stephen Harris

Gareth Jones



Abstract

© 2017 The Authors. Journal of Applied Ecology Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of British Ecological Society Sodium street lights, dominated by long wavelengths of light, are being replaced by broad-spectrum, white lights globally, in particular light-emitting diodes (LEDs). These white lights typically require less energy to operate and are therefore considered “eco-friendly”. However, little attention has been paid to the impacts white lights may have upon local wildlife populations. We compared insect attraction to orange (high-pressure sodium, HPS) and white (metal halide, MH and LED) street lights experimentally using portable street lights and custom-made flight intercept traps. Significantly more (greater than five times as many) insects were attracted to white MH street lights than white (4,250K) LED and HPS lights. There was no statistical difference in the numbers of insects attracted to LED and HPS lights for most taxa caught. However, rarefaction shows a greater diversity of insects caught at LED than HPS lights. Policy implications. With the current, large-scale conversion to white light-emitting diode (LED) lighting, our results give insight into how changes to street light technology may affect wildlife populations and communities. We recommend avoiding metal halide light installations as they attract many more insects than competing technologies. We highlight the need to tailor LED lighting to prevent disturbances across multiple insect taxa.

Citation

Wakefield, A., Broyles, M., Stone, E. L., Harris, S., & Jones, G. (2018). Quantifying the attractiveness of broad-spectrum street lights to aerial nocturnal insects. Journal of Applied Ecology, 55(2), 714-722. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.13004

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Aug 24, 2017
Online Publication Date Aug 30, 2017
Publication Date Mar 1, 2018
Deposit Date Oct 11, 2018
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Journal of Applied Ecology
Print ISSN 0021-8901
Electronic ISSN 1365-2664
Publisher Wiley
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 55
Issue 2
Pages 714-722
DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.13004
Keywords artificial light; Coleoptera; Diptera; high‐pressure sodium lights; LED; Lepidoptera; light pollution; metal halide lights; nocturnal insects; street lights
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/870365
Publisher URL http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.13004

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