{"id":454,"date":"2021-08-26T08:28:02","date_gmt":"2021-08-26T08:28:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yorkshirewildlife.co.uk\/wp\/?p=454"},"modified":"2021-08-26T08:30:11","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T08:30:11","slug":"street-lights-linked-to-insect-decline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yorkshirewildlife.co.uk\/wp\/2021\/08\/26\/street-lights-linked-to-insect-decline\/","title":{"rendered":"Street Lights Linked to Insect Decline"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"500\" height=\"326\" src=\"https:\/\/yorkshirewildlife.co.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/five-spot-burnet-7-500.jpg\" alt=\"Five-spot burnet moth, Flamborough Head\" class=\"wp-image-455\" srcset=\"https:\/\/yorkshirewildlife.co.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/five-spot-burnet-7-500.jpg 500w, https:\/\/yorkshirewildlife.co.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/five-spot-burnet-7-500-460x300.jpg 460w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><figcaption>Five-spot burnet moth, Flamborough Head<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Light pollution from street lights is linked to worrying declines in insect populations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a UK study, street lights were found to disrupt the behaviour of nocturnal moths, reducing caterpillar numbers by half, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/science-environment-58333233\">reports the BBC<\/a>. Modern LED lights have the most damaging impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is hard to separate out the many factors causing insect populations to decline; other than light pollution, there is global heating, habitat loss, and pesticide use. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the study, scientists compared caterpillar numbers at roadside sites with street lights against nearby roadside sites that were unlit. There were lower caterpillar numbers at the lit sites as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>47% fewer caterpillars in hedgerows<\/li><li>33% fewer caterpillars in grass margins<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Lights may deter nocturnal moths from laying eggs, and put them at risk of being seen by predators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>40% of insect species are undergoing dramatic rates of decline, and this has consequences for entire ecosystems because they are a food source for birds, amphibians, bats and reptiles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Practical solutions to the problem of street lights include dimming them in the early hours, fitting motion sensors, or using colour filters to cut out the most harmful wavelengths.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Light pollution from street lights is linked to worrying declines in insect populations. In a UK study, street lights were<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yorkshirewildlife.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yorkshirewildlife.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yorkshirewildlife.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yorkshirewildlife.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yorkshirewildlife.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/yorkshirewildlife.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":458,"href":"https:\/\/yorkshirewildlife.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454\/revisions\/458"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yorkshirewildlife.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yorkshirewildlife.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yorkshirewildlife.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yorkshirewildlife.co.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}