Andrew Wakefield
Quantifying the attractiveness of broad-spectrum street lights to aerial nocturnal insects
Wakefield, Andrew; Broyles, Moth; Stone, Emma L.; Harris, Stephen; Jones, Gareth
Authors
Moth Broyles
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.
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 | Oct 11, 2018 |
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 |
Contract Date | Oct 11, 2018 |
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