Niki Hubbard and Milly Caley snorkelling in Parsley Bay, collecting seaweed samples from Artificial Light at Night experiments in the field, photo by Bella Charlesworth
More than 20% of the world’s coastlines are estimated to be exposed to artificial night-time lighting (ALAN). Despite increasing evidence of the immediacy, severity and the phylogenetic breadth of night-time lighting impacts, ALAN is expected to increase globally in both intensity and spatial extent in the coming decades. However, the potential impacts of this emerging threat on the overall ecology of coastal communities are still largely unknown. This project aims to address these knowledge gaps by assessing how ALAN affects the overall diversity and functioning of coastal urbanised systems, and how it interacts with other stressors such as warming. Recent experiments include studies into the effects of artificial light at night on keystone species, including sea urchins, crabs, fish and seaweeds.
