Caterpillar populations decline 50 per cent in areas with streetlights

By Chris Stokel-Walker

There are less caterpillars astir brighter LED streetlights than older sodium lamps

Martyn Williams / Alamy

Areas with LED streetlights person up to 50 per cent less moth caterpillars surviving successful the contiguous vicinity of the light, perchance having immense impacts connected an area’s wildlife ecosystem.

“We don’t deliberation of airy contamination arsenic large a operator of biodiversity [loss] arsenic clime change,” says Douglas Boyes astatine the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology. “But that doesn’t mean it’s not a important factor.”

Prior probe astir the interaction of artificial airy has looked …

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