Transition from conventional to light‐emitting diode street lighting changes activity of urban bats ...

• Main Authors: Lewanzik, Daniel, Voigt, Christian C., Minderman, Jeroen
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: Zenodo 2017
• Subjects: Biodiversity; Mammalia; Chiroptera; Chordata; Animalia; bats; bat; Nev; Pipistrellus nathusii; Pipistrellus pipistrellus
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13450586; https://zenodo.org/doi/10.5281/zenodo.13450586

(Uploaded by Plazi for the Bat Literature Project) Summary Light pollution is rapidly increasing and can have deleterious effects on biodiversity, yet light types differ in their effect on wildlife. Among the light types used for street lamps, light‐emitting diodes (LEDs) are expected to become globally predominant within the next few years. In a large‐scale field experiment, we recorded bat activity at 46 street lights for 12 nights each and investigated how the widespread replacement of conventional illuminants by LEDs affects urban bats: we compared bat activity at municipal mercury vapour (MV) street lamps that were replaced by LEDs with control sites that were not changed. Pipistrellus pipistrellus was the most frequently recorded species; it was 45% less active at LEDs than at MV street lamps, but the activity did not depend on illuminance level. Light type did not affect the activity of Pipistrellus nathusii , Pipistrellus pygmaeus or bats in the Nyctalus/Eptesicus/Vespertilio (NEV) group, yet the ...