A team led by the University of Exeter brought together more than 100 studies and found "widespread" impacts on animals and plants.
A team led by the University of Exeter brought together more than 100 studies and found "widespread" impacts on animals and plants.
Changes to animals' bodies and behaviour – especially hormone levels and patterns of waking and sleeping – were consistently found.
The study shows that levels of melatonin (a hormone regulating sleep cycles) were reduced by exposure to artificial lighting at night in all animal species studied.
"Lots of studies have examined the impacts of artificial night-time lighting on particular species or communities of species," said Professor Kevin Gaston, of the Environment and Sustainability Institute on Exeter's Penryn Campus in Cornwall.
Read more at: University of Exeter
