Light pollution is fueling to drive the so-called 'insect apocalypse,' experts warn. The pollution adds to concern that 40 percent of all insects will become extinct within decades.
Researchers said artificial light at night could affect insects in different ways - forcing them to go somewhere to change their development and life cycles. The insect number decline has knock-on effects on the global ecosystem, including the fall of North American bird numbers by 3 billion over the last 50 years.
However, the researchers noted that light pollution is relatively easy to address compared with other human-made environmental problems. The researchers urge people to limit their dependence on artificial light.
The analysis, published in the journal Biological Conservation, is the latest in a group bringing attention to the increasingly disturbing plight of the world's insect populations.
A global scientific review published this year estimated that the number of insects is decreasing by 2.5 percent each year, with more than 40 percent of insect species threatened with extinction in the next few decades.
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The researchers said in their paper that light is the source of everything on the planet and works as a fundamental part of the conscious ability of most animal taxa. "[Light also serves as an] environmental cue of time of day and year that has been constant throughout all of evolutionary history," it added.
Biologist Avalon Owens of the Tufts University in Massachusetts and colleagues synthesized the results of over 200 independent studies in their paper, showing multiple ways where light pollution affects the lives of insects across the globe.
The researchers noted that artificial light at night affects the nocturnal and daytime insects through impacts on development, movement, foraging, reproduction, and predation risk. Artificial light, according to researchers, provides a threat that changes individual insect species because of light pollution's broad impact.
Experts took an example of the declining insect numbers directly linked to the decline of nearly 3 billion birds that feed on bugs in the US and Canada since 1970.
"We also emphasize that artificial light at night is not merely a [part of] urbanization," the researchers shared. The study added that ecological consequences of light pollution are also widespread along roadways and around protected areas.
Zoological Lighting Institute's James Karl Fischer told DailyMail that the public have to take the Insect Apocalypse seriously just as was the case of climate change science. These issues should not be avoided if people sincerely hope to prevent a terrible situation from getting worse, Fischer added.
"Insects [serve as environment lynch-pins] and are necessary for other kinds of animals to survive; [insect diversity] is crucial to maintaining our food supply," Fischer explained.
How do we protect the insects?
The authors have different easy recommendations to help protect insects from light pollution, on top of the apparent technique of turning off non-essential illumination.
Researchers said outdoor lights could be protected, filtered or dimmed. They also warned that certain monochromatic LED lights come with several environmental setbacks - such as their potential for generating ultrasound radiations, which could disturb various insects.
Fischer said the number of personal control people have gives humanity a bit of hope.
"It is an easy [thing] to eliminate, reduce, or [modify] the ecologically [overwhelming] artificial [lights] in and on our homes, schools, businesses if we want to, simply by turning off exterior lights," he explained. However, he said the public must be willing to search for alternatives to the functions that the artificial lights are serving.