Night-time lighting changes how species interact

Night-time lighting changes how species interact

5 years ago
Anonymous $RBasgWKaIV

https://phys.org/news/2018-07-night-time-species-interact.html

By studying communities of plants, aphids and parasitoid wasps in the UK, University of Exeter scientists found the effects of night-time lighting changed depending on the brightness of the light.

At low levels of lighting, equivalent to sky-glow from a nearby town or light further away from street lights, the parasitoid wasps had a hunting advantage that meant they killed twice as many aphids. But with brighter lighting, these wasps became distracted and flew away from the aphids.With much of the world—including 88% of Europe—now subject to some level of artificial night-time lighting, the researchers say it could be having a "widespread impact" on the way many different kinds of species interact.