Artificial lights have become an integral and welcome part of our
urban and peri-urban environments. However, recent research has
highlighted the potentially negative ecological consequences of
ubiquitous artificial light. In particular, insects, especially
moths, are expected to be negatively impacted by the presence of
artificial lights. Previous research with light traps has shown a
male-biased attraction to light in moths. In this study, we
sought to determine whether street lights could limit moth
dispersal and whether there was any sex bias in attraction to
light. More specifically, we aimed to determine sex-specific
attraction radii for moths to street lights. We tested these
hypotheses by collecting moths for 2 years at an experimental
set-up. To estimate the attraction radii, we developed a Markov
model and related it to the acquired data. Utilizing multinomial
statistics, we found that attraction rates to lights in the
middle of the matrix were substantially lower than predicted by
the null hypothesis of equal attraction level (0·44 times). With
the Markov model, we estimated that a corner light was 2·77 times
more attractive than a wing light with an equivalentre attraction
radius of c. 23 m around each light. We found neither sexual
differences in the attraction rate nor in the attraction radius
of males and females. Since we captured three times more males
than females, we conclude that sex ratios are representative of
operational sex ratios or of different flight activities. These
results provide evidence for street lights to limit moth
dispersal, and that they seem to act equally on male and female
moths. Consequently, public lighting might divide a suitable
landscape into many small habitats. Therefore, it is reasonable
to assume (i) that public lighting near hedges and bushes or
field margins reduces the quality of these important habitat
structures and (ii) that public lighting may affect moth movement
between patches.
%0 Journal Article
%1 Degen2016-tq
%A Degen, Tobias
%A Mitesser, Oliver
%A Perkin, Elizabeth K
%A Weiß, Nina-Sophie
%A Oehlert, Martin
%A Mattig, Emily
%A Hölker, Franz
%D 2016
%J J Anim Ecol
%K pc6 sfb1047
%N 5
%P 1352--1360
%T Street lighting: sex-independent impacts on moth movement
%V 85
%X Artificial lights have become an integral and welcome part of our
urban and peri-urban environments. However, recent research has
highlighted the potentially negative ecological consequences of
ubiquitous artificial light. In particular, insects, especially
moths, are expected to be negatively impacted by the presence of
artificial lights. Previous research with light traps has shown a
male-biased attraction to light in moths. In this study, we
sought to determine whether street lights could limit moth
dispersal and whether there was any sex bias in attraction to
light. More specifically, we aimed to determine sex-specific
attraction radii for moths to street lights. We tested these
hypotheses by collecting moths for 2 years at an experimental
set-up. To estimate the attraction radii, we developed a Markov
model and related it to the acquired data. Utilizing multinomial
statistics, we found that attraction rates to lights in the
middle of the matrix were substantially lower than predicted by
the null hypothesis of equal attraction level (0·44 times). With
the Markov model, we estimated that a corner light was 2·77 times
more attractive than a wing light with an equivalentre attraction
radius of c. 23 m around each light. We found neither sexual
differences in the attraction rate nor in the attraction radius
of males and females. Since we captured three times more males
than females, we conclude that sex ratios are representative of
operational sex ratios or of different flight activities. These
results provide evidence for street lights to limit moth
dispersal, and that they seem to act equally on male and female
moths. Consequently, public lighting might divide a suitable
landscape into many small habitats. Therefore, it is reasonable
to assume (i) that public lighting near hedges and bushes or
field margins reduces the quality of these important habitat
structures and (ii) that public lighting may affect moth movement
between patches.
@article{Degen2016-tq,
abstract = {Artificial lights have become an integral and welcome part of our
urban and peri-urban environments. However, recent research has
highlighted the potentially negative ecological consequences of
ubiquitous artificial light. In particular, insects, especially
moths, are expected to be negatively impacted by the presence of
artificial lights. Previous research with light traps has shown a
male-biased attraction to light in moths. In this study, we
sought to determine whether street lights could limit moth
dispersal and whether there was any sex bias in attraction to
light. More specifically, we aimed to determine sex-specific
attraction radii for moths to street lights. We tested these
hypotheses by collecting moths for 2 years at an experimental
set-up. To estimate the attraction radii, we developed a Markov
model and related it to the acquired data. Utilizing multinomial
statistics, we found that attraction rates to lights in the
middle of the matrix were substantially lower than predicted by
the null hypothesis of equal attraction level (0·44 times). With
the Markov model, we estimated that a corner light was 2·77 times
more attractive than a wing light with an equivalentre attraction
radius of c. 23 m around each light. We found neither sexual
differences in the attraction rate nor in the attraction radius
of males and females. Since we captured three times more males
than females, we conclude that sex ratios are representative of
operational sex ratios or of different flight activities. These
results provide evidence for street lights to limit moth
dispersal, and that they seem to act equally on male and female
moths. Consequently, public lighting might divide a suitable
landscape into many small habitats. Therefore, it is reasonable
to assume (i) that public lighting near hedges and bushes or
field margins reduces the quality of these important habitat
structures and (ii) that public lighting may affect moth movement
between patches.},
added-at = {2022-09-28T14:08:12.000+0200},
author = {Degen, Tobias and Mitesser, Oliver and Perkin, Elizabeth K and Weiß, Nina-Sophie and Oehlert, Martin and Mattig, Emily and Hölker, Franz},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/245c0f380abbf5a91dfbaa52f77f0c774/neurobiowue},
interhash = {4bb33caaf2ec1b24a3f0f8330ae0b21a},
intrahash = {45c0f380abbf5a91dfbaa52f77f0c774},
journal = {J Anim Ecol},
keywords = {pc6 sfb1047},
number = 5,
pages = {1352--1360},
timestamp = {2022-10-10T13:38:15.000+0200},
title = {Street lighting: sex-independent impacts on moth movement},
volume = 85,
year = 2016
}