It has been known for some time that an evolutionary trade off between light sensitivity and temporal resolution exists, such that photoreceptors capable of detecting low light levels cannot sample the environment as frequently as can those operating at higher light intensities. A species' visual system must therefore be well adapted to its habitat and activity patterns in terms of spectral sensitivity, detectable light levels and the temporal resolution at which it can sample its environment. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Ĭompeting interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.įor many animals perception of light reflected from objects is the primary method used to gain information about their environment, and is critical for finding food and mates and for avoiding predation. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.įunding: The research leading to this paper received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007–2013)/ERC grant agreement no. Received: FebruAccepted: Published: May 29, 2014Ĭopyright: © 2014 Inger et al. Boyles, Southern Illinois University, United States of America Flickering artificial light thus has marked potential to produce ecological effects that have not previously been considered.Ĭitation: Inger R, Bennie J, Davies TW, Gaston KJ (2014) Potential Biological and Ecological Effects of Flickering Artificial Light. Here we use the largest collation to date of critical fusion frequencies, across a broad range of taxa, to demonstrate that a significant proportion of species can detect such flicker in widely used lamps.
#Flickery night light series
That is the frequency at which a series of light pulses are perceived as a constant stream. Whether a species is likely to be affected will largely be determined by its visual temporal resolution, measured as the critical fusion frequency. This flickering light has been shown to have detrimental effects in humans and other species.
Little considered is that many types of lamp do not produce a constant stream of light but a series of pulses. Until now, most attention has focussed on effects of the occurrence, timing, and spectral composition of artificial lighting.
Indeed, night-time electric lighting is known significantly to disrupt phenology, behaviour, and reproductive success, and thence community composition and ecosystem functioning. However, the extent and density of artificial lighting within the environment has increased recently, causing widespread alteration of these regimes. Organisms have evolved under stable natural lighting regimes, employing cues from these to govern key ecological processes.
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