Artificial light can disrupt marine ecosystems
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.028836
Science : Thomas Davies of the University of Exeter in the UK and his colleagues submerged plastic panels in the Menai Strait , stretches of which are exposed to very little artificial light. At night, they shined white LEDs on some of the panels to approximate the light that shines on areas of the ocean from nearby cities or deep-sea platforms. After 12 weeks, they examined the panels for the presence of marine life and found that 39% of the species present on the panels favored one of the sets over the others. The study appears to confirm that ocean ecosystems exposed to large amounts of nonnatural light at night can experience significant changes. That finding could be important for understanding the ecological effects of deep-sea platforms and coastal development.
