Streetlights alter the number of flower visits by insects not just at night, but also during the daytime.
Streetlights alter the number of flower visits by insects not just at night, but also during the daytime. Artificial light at night thus indirectly affects the entire plant-pollinator community, with unknown consequences for functioning of the ecosystem, as researchers from the University of Zurich and Agroscope have proven for the first time.
The use of artificial light at night around the world has increased enormously in recent years, causing adverse effects on the survival and reproduction of nocturnal organisms. Artificial light at night interferes with vital ecological processes such as the nighttime pollination of plants by nocturnal insects, which could have consequences for agricultural crop yields and reproduction of wild plants.
Scientists from the University of Zurich and Agroscope have now demonstrated for the first time that artificial light at night also adversely affects insects’ pollination behavior during the daytime. In an experiment, they used commercial streetlamps to illuminate natural plant-pollinator communities during the nighttime on six natural meadows. Six other natural meadows were left dark. The research team concentrated its analysis on 21 naturally occurring plant species and the insect orders Diptera, Hymenoptera and Coleoptera.
Read more at University of Zurich
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