Mapping ecological risks from the colour spectrum of artificial nighttime lighting using astronaut images of the earth

使用地球的宇航员图像从人造夜间照明的色谱中绘制生态风险图

基本信息

批准号：
NE/P01156X/1
负责人：
Kevin Gaston
金额：
$ 57.43万
依托单位：
UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
依托单位国家：
英国
项目类别：
Research Grant
财政年份：
2017
资助国家：
英国
起止时间：
2017 至无数据
项目状态：
已结题

来源：
https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=NE%2FP01156X%2F1
关键词：
Mapping ecological risks colour spectrum

项目摘要

Daily, lunar and seasonal cycles of natural light have occurred across the Earth's surface since the first emergence of life and are key features of the natural environment that have driven the development of biological phenomena from the molecule to the ecosystem. These natural patterns have, however, over the last 100 years come to be greatly disrupted through the introduction of artificial light into the nighttime environment. This disruption derives from a range of sources, including street lighting, advertising lighting, architectural lighting, security lighting, domestic lighting and vehicle lighting. Indeed, artificial nighttime lighting is already estimated to be experienced directly and indirectly (through skyglow - scattering by molecules or aerosols in the atmosphere of artificial nighttime light that is emitted or reflected upwards) by more than 20% of the global land area and to be growing at about 6% per year. Images of the earth at night acquired by satellites and manned space missions frequently illustrate the extent of the problem.The introduction of artificial light into the nighttime environment has provided significant and substantial benefits to humankind. But, given that biological systems are fundamentally shaped by light, there have inevitably been a wide array of environmental impacts. Studies have highlighted consequences of artificial nighttime light for the physiology, foraging, daily movements, migratory behaviour, reproduction, and mortality of individual organisms, for the abundance and distribution of species, and for the composition and functioning of communities. However, the spatial pattern and variation over time of these effects remain poorly understood. In major part this is because whilst the responses are commonly dependent on the different wavelengths of artificial nighttime lighting (perceived as colour), data on how this varies at geographic scales has largely been lacking. This means that it is difficult to identify those areas in which the environmental impacts of artificial lighting are of greatest concern and where attention to optimizing the trade-offs between human benefits and environmental impacts should be focused. This is particularly significant at a time of large scale and rapid introduction of new lighting technology and use of 'smart illumination'; many street and other lighting systems are moving to 'whiter' lights, commonly using light-emitting diodes (LEDs), and central management systems are increasingly enabling more flexible approaches to the implementation of public lighting.In this project we will resolve this problem, and determine the likely severity across Europe of an array of ecological impacts of artificial lighting of the nighttime environment using data from a novel and largely untapped source, the colour images taken using conventional SLR cameras by astronauts aboard the International Space Station.

自生命首次出现以来，自然光的每日、月球和季节循环就出现在地球表面，并且是自然环境的关键特征，推动了从分子到生态系统的生物现象的发展。然而，在过去的 100 年里，由于夜间环境中人造光的引入，这些自然模式已被极大地破坏。这种破坏源自多种来源，包括街道照明、广告照明、建筑照明、安全照明、家庭照明和车辆照明。事实上，据估计，全球超过 20% 的陆地面积已经直接和间接地感受到了人工夜间照明（通过天空辉光 - 向上发射或反射的人造夜间光的大气中分子或气溶胶的散射）。每年增长约6%。卫星和载人航天任务获取的地球夜间图像经常说明问题的严重程度。将人造光引入夜间环境为人类带来了重大和实质性的好处。但是，鉴于生物系统从根本上来说是由光塑造的，因此不可避免地会产生广泛的环境影响。研究强调了人造夜间光对个体生物体的生理、觅食、日常活动、迁徙行为、繁殖和死亡率、物种的丰度和分布以及群落的组成和功能的影响。然而，这些效应的空间模式和随时间的变化仍然知之甚少。这在很大程度上是因为，虽然反应通常取决于人造夜间照明的不同波长（被视为颜色），但很大程度上缺乏关于其在地理尺度上如何变化的数据。这意味着很难确定人工照明对环境影响最受关注的领域以及应重点关注优化人类利益和环境影响之间的权衡的领域。这在大规模、快速引入新照明技术和使用“智能照明”的时代尤为重要；许多街道和其他照明系统正在转向“更白”的灯光，通常使用发光二极管 (LED)，中央管理系统越来越多地采用更灵活的方法来实施公共照明。在这个项目中，我们将解决这个问题，并使用来自新颖且基本上未开发的来源的数据（国际空间站上的宇航员使用传统单反相机拍摄的彩色图像）确定整个欧洲夜间环境的人造照明的一系列生态影响可能的严重程度。