Investigating the impacts of artificial light via blackouts

Arjun Amar; Chevonne Reynolds; Robert L Thomson; Davide Dominoni

doi:10.1016/j.tree.2024.04.006

Investigating the impacts of artificial light via blackouts

Trends Ecol Evol. 2024 May 18:S0169-5347(24)00088-0. doi: 10.1016/j.tree.2024.04.006. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Arjun Amar¹, Chevonne Reynolds², Robert L Thomson³, Davide Dominoni⁴

Affiliations

¹ FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town, South Africa. Electronic address: arjun.amar@uct.ac.za.
² School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
³ FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town, South Africa.
⁴ School of Biodiversity, One Health and Veterinary medicine, University of Glasgow, UK.

PMID: 38777636
DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2024.04.006

Abstract

Natural experiments provide remarkable opportunities to test the large-scale effects of human activities. Widespread energy blackouts offer such an 'experiment' to test the impacts of artificial light at night (ALAN) on wildlife. We use the situation in South Africa, where regular scheduled blackouts are being implemented, to highlight this opportunity.

Keywords: ALAN; animal behaviour; artificial light at night; energy blackouts; load-shedding; natural experiment; sensory pollution.