Light on Nature

We produce more and more light at night. Virtually everybody in Europe or the US lives in a light polluted place: all areas where artificial light always exceeds the light of the moon and the stars. These areas expand with about two percent per year, while already light polluted areas become even brighter at night. 

Light at night has a profound impact on wildlife. The Netherlands Institute of Ecology teams up with a number of organizations to investigate this impact in the Light on Nature and Light on Landscape project. This project includes a large study for which natural, previously dark area is experimently illuminated at different locations in the Netherlands. Because nowadays we can adapt the colour spectrum of light, we test the impact on plants and animals of white, green and red light. This includes both short- and long term effects. Testing long-term effects is important as lighting is never installed for just a few nights. We monitor the impact of light on as many species groups possible: plants, moths, bats, mice, mustelis and other mammal species, birds and amphibians.