UCLA

Anthropogenic light at night disrupts natural patterns of light and darkness, and the color of light that have been reliable over geological time. Such changes in the environment result in nonadaptive responses from species and disruption of daily, lunar, and annual rhythms. The range of impacts of light pollution on biodiversity include interference with movement, interspecific interactions, sleep and daily rhythms, reproduction, development, gene expression, and stress and fear responses. Design principles are available to guide deployment of light at night to reduce, but not eliminate, adverse impacts on biodiversity arising from the human production of light at night.