Artificial light at night alters grassland vegetation species composition and phenology

摘要

1. Human settlements and transport networks are growing rapidly worldwide. Since the early 20th century their expansion has been accompanied by increasing illumination of the environment at night, a trend that is likely to continue over the decades to come. Consequently, a growing proportion of the world's ecosystems are exposed to artificial light at night, profoundly altering natural cycles of light and darkness. While in recent years there have been advances in our understanding of the effects of artificial light at night on the behaviour and physiology of animals in the wild, much less is known about the impacts on wild plants and natural or semi-natural vegetation composition. This is surprising, as effects of low-intensity light at night on flowering, phenology and growth form are well known in laboratory and greenhouse studies.