Effects of dimming light-emitting diode street lights on light-opportunistic and light-averse bats in suburban habitats
Emerging lighting technologies provide opportunities for reducing carbon footprints, and for biodiversity conservation. In addition to installing light-emitting diode street lights, many local authorities are also dimming street lights. This might benefit light-averse bat species by creating dark re...
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crroyalsociety:10.1098/rsos.180205 2024-06-23T07:56:14+00:00 Effects of dimming light-emitting diode street lights on light-opportunistic and light-averse bats in suburban habitats Rowse, Elizabeth G. Harris, Stephen Jones, Gareth Natural Environment Research Council 2018 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.180205 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.180205 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsos.180205 en eng The Royal Society https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ Royal Society Open Science volume 5, issue 6, page 180205 ISSN 2054-5703 journal-article 2018 crroyalsociety https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.180205 2024-06-10T04:15:10Z Emerging lighting technologies provide opportunities for reducing carbon footprints, and for biodiversity conservation. In addition to installing light-emitting diode street lights, many local authorities are also dimming street lights. This might benefit light-averse bat species by creating dark refuges for these bats to forage and commute in human-dominated habitats. We conducted a field experiment to determine how light intensity affects the activity of the light-opportunistic Pipistrellus pipistrellus and light-averse bats in the genus Myotis. We used four lighting levels controlled under a central management system at existing street lights in a suburban environment (0, 25, 50 and 100% of the original output). Higher light intensities (50 and 100% of original output) increased the activity of light-opportunistic species but reduced the activity of light-averse bats. Compared to the unlit treatment, the 25% lighting level did not significantly affect either P. pipistrellus or Myotis spp. Our results suggest that it is possible to achieve a light intensity that provides both economic and ecological benefits by providing sufficient light for human requirements while not deterring light-averse bats. Article in Journal/Newspaper Pipistrellus pipistrellus The Royal Society Royal Society Open Science 5 6 180205 |
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The Royal Society |
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crroyalsociety |
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English |
description |
Emerging lighting technologies provide opportunities for reducing carbon footprints, and for biodiversity conservation. In addition to installing light-emitting diode street lights, many local authorities are also dimming street lights. This might benefit light-averse bat species by creating dark refuges for these bats to forage and commute in human-dominated habitats. We conducted a field experiment to determine how light intensity affects the activity of the light-opportunistic Pipistrellus pipistrellus and light-averse bats in the genus Myotis. We used four lighting levels controlled under a central management system at existing street lights in a suburban environment (0, 25, 50 and 100% of the original output). Higher light intensities (50 and 100% of original output) increased the activity of light-opportunistic species but reduced the activity of light-averse bats. Compared to the unlit treatment, the 25% lighting level did not significantly affect either P. pipistrellus or Myotis spp. Our results suggest that it is possible to achieve a light intensity that provides both economic and ecological benefits by providing sufficient light for human requirements while not deterring light-averse bats. |
author2 |
Natural Environment Research Council |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Rowse, Elizabeth G. Harris, Stephen Jones, Gareth |
spellingShingle |
Rowse, Elizabeth G. Harris, Stephen Jones, Gareth Effects of dimming light-emitting diode street lights on light-opportunistic and light-averse bats in suburban habitats |
author_facet |
Rowse, Elizabeth G. Harris, Stephen Jones, Gareth |
author_sort |
Rowse, Elizabeth G. |
title |
Effects of dimming light-emitting diode street lights on light-opportunistic and light-averse bats in suburban habitats |
title_short |
Effects of dimming light-emitting diode street lights on light-opportunistic and light-averse bats in suburban habitats |
title_full |
Effects of dimming light-emitting diode street lights on light-opportunistic and light-averse bats in suburban habitats |
title_fullStr |
Effects of dimming light-emitting diode street lights on light-opportunistic and light-averse bats in suburban habitats |
title_full_unstemmed |
Effects of dimming light-emitting diode street lights on light-opportunistic and light-averse bats in suburban habitats |
title_sort |
effects of dimming light-emitting diode street lights on light-opportunistic and light-averse bats in suburban habitats |
publisher |
The Royal Society |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.180205 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/pdf/10.1098/rsos.180205 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full-xml/10.1098/rsos.180205 |
genre |
Pipistrellus pipistrellus |
genre_facet |
Pipistrellus pipistrellus |
op_source |
Royal Society Open Science volume 5, issue 6, page 180205 ISSN 2054-5703 |
op_rights |
https://royalsociety.org/journals/ethics-policies/data-sharing-mining/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.180205 |
container_title |
Royal Society Open Science |
container_volume |
5 |
container_issue |
6 |
container_start_page |
180205 |
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1802649193645342720 |