Effects of moon light and artificial light
Natural light/dark cycles and moon phases are important cues for terrestrial mammals to determine time of day and time of month.
Where there is significant artificial light at night, darker moon phases are masked, which may negatively impact important activities.
Ecological processes
Artificial light can disrupt the flow of energy and nutrients in waterways and terrestrial ecosystems by:
- reducing the biomass of algae available to for microinvertebrates to forage on
- suppressing the upward migration of microinvertebrates and thus depriving insect nymphs, fish and other predators of prey
- by increasing predation pressure on insect nymphs by fish or birds
- by preventing fish from hatching and depriving them of natural dark refuges
- by drawing flying insects away from water bodies and concentrating them (and thus the nutrients they represent) at particular points in the landscape
- by altering the size and composition of predator and scavenger assemblages around artificial light sources.
In addition, artificial light barriers can:
- prevent the dispersal of faunal pollinators and seed dispersers across the landscape, thereby
- reducing plant reproduction and the availability of fruit and seed as food resources.
Three of Australia’s most damaging invasive animals — Cane Toads, Feral Cats and Red Foxes—have been shown to prefer or benefit from artificially illuminated hunting grounds.
Invasive birds such as the Common Myna and Rainbow Lorikeet (in Western Australia and Tasmania) have readily colonised urban areas, including because they can tolerate (or even prefer) some level of artificial light at night.