Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Artificial night lighting affects dawn song, extra-pair siring success, and lay date in songbirds

Kempenaers, Bart ; Borgström, Pernilla LU ; Loës, Peter ; Schlicht, Emmi and Valcu, Mihai (2010) In Current Biology 20(19). p.1735-1739
Abstract
Associated with a continued global increase in urbanization[1], anthropogenic light pollution is an important problem[2]. However, our understanding of the ecological conse-quences of light pollution is limited [2–4]. We investigatedeffects of artificial night lighting on dawn song in fivecommon forest-breeding songbirds. In four species, malesnear street lights started singing significantly earlier atdawn than males elsewhere in the forest, and this effectwas stronger in naturally earlier-singing species. We com-pared reproductive behavior of blue tits breeding in edgeterritories with and without street lights to that of blue titsbreeding in central territories over a 7 year period. Underthe influence of street lights, females started egg... (More)
Associated with a continued global increase in urbanization[1], anthropogenic light pollution is an important problem[2]. However, our understanding of the ecological conse-quences of light pollution is limited [2–4]. We investigatedeffects of artificial night lighting on dawn song in fivecommon forest-breeding songbirds. In four species, malesnear street lights started singing significantly earlier atdawn than males elsewhere in the forest, and this effectwas stronger in naturally earlier-singing species. We com-pared reproductive behavior of blue tits breeding in edgeterritories with and without street lights to that of blue titsbreeding in central territories over a 7 year period. Underthe influence of street lights, females started egg laying onaverage 1.5 days earlier. Males occupying edge territorieswith street lights were twice as successful in obtainingextra-pair mates than their close neighbors or than malesoccupying central forest territories. Artificial night lightingaffected both age classes but had a stronger effect on year-ling males. Our findings indicate that light pollution hassubstantial effects on the timing of reproductive behaviorand on individual mating patterns. It may have importantevolutionary consequences by changing the informationembedded in previously reliable quality-indicator traits (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; ; and
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Current Biology
volume
20
issue
19
pages
5 pages
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:77957824870
ISSN
1879-0445
DOI
10.1016/j.cub.2010.08.028
language
English
LU publication?
no
id
9665da35-a32e-41b1-bbad-d35e206a668b
date added to LUP
2019-04-04 09:49:07
date last changed
2022-04-25 22:24:45
@article{9665da35-a32e-41b1-bbad-d35e206a668b,
  abstract     = {{Associated with a continued global increase in urbanization[1], anthropogenic light pollution is an important problem[2]. However, our understanding of the ecological conse-quences of light pollution is limited [2–4]. We investigatedeffects of artificial night lighting on dawn song in fivecommon forest-breeding songbirds. In four species, malesnear street lights started singing significantly earlier atdawn than males elsewhere in the forest, and this effectwas stronger in naturally earlier-singing species. We com-pared reproductive behavior of blue tits breeding in edgeterritories with and without street lights to that of blue titsbreeding in central territories over a 7 year period. Underthe influence of street lights, females started egg laying onaverage 1.5 days earlier. Males occupying edge territorieswith street lights were twice as successful in obtainingextra-pair mates than their close neighbors or than malesoccupying central forest territories. Artificial night lightingaffected both age classes but had a stronger effect on year-ling males. Our findings indicate that light pollution hassubstantial effects on the timing of reproductive behaviorand on individual mating patterns. It may have importantevolutionary consequences by changing the informationembedded in previously reliable quality-indicator traits}},
  author       = {{Kempenaers, Bart and Borgström, Pernilla and Loës, Peter and Schlicht, Emmi and Valcu, Mihai}},
  issn         = {{1879-0445}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{10}},
  number       = {{19}},
  pages        = {{1735--1739}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Current Biology}},
  title        = {{Artificial night lighting affects dawn song, extra-pair siring success, and lay date in songbirds}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2010.08.028}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.cub.2010.08.028}},
  volume       = {{20}},
  year         = {{2010}},
}