Color of Artificial Light at Night Affects Incubation Behavior in the Great Tit, Parus major

Natalie E Van Dis,Kamiel Spoelstra,Davide M Dominoni,Marcel E Visser

doi:10.3389/fevo.2021.728377

Abstract

Artificial light at night (ALAN) has been recognized as a biodiversity threat due to the drastic effects it can have on many organisms. In wild birds, artificial illumination alters many natural behaviors that are important for fitness, including chick provisioning. Although incubation is a key determinant of the early developmental environment, studies into the effects of ALAN on bird incubation behavior are lacking. We measured nest temperature in nest boxes of great tits during the incubation period in two consecutive years. Nest boxes were located in eight previously dark field sites that have been experimentally illuminated since 2012 with white, green, or red light, or were left dark. We tested if light treatment affected mean nest temperature, number of times birds leave the nest (off-bout frequency), and off-bout duration during the incubation period. Subsequently, we investigated if incubation behavior is related to fitness. We found that birds incubating in the white light during a cold, early spring had lower mean nest temperatures at the end of incubation, both during the day and during the night, compared to birds in the green light. Moreover, birds incubating in white light took fewer off-bouts, but off-bouts were on average longer. The opposite was true for birds breeding in the green light. Low incubation temperatures and few but long off-bouts can have severe consequences for developing embryos. In our study, eggs from birds that took on average few off-bouts needed more incubation days to hatch compared to eggs from birds that took many off-bouts. Nevertheless, we found no clear fitness effects of light treatment or incubation behavior on the number of hatchlings or hatchling weight. Our results add to the growing body of literature that shows that effects of ALAN can be subtle, can differ due to the spectral composition of light, and can be year-dependent. These subtle alterations of natural behaviors might not have severe fitness consequences in the short-term. However, in the long term they could add up, negatively affecting parent condition and survival as well as offspring recruitment, especially in urban environments where more environmental pollutants are present.

Highlights

Artificial light at night (ALAN) is considered a polluter of natural environments due to the profound effects it has on wildlife (Hölker et al, 2010)
Artificial light at night only affected nest temperature in 2017 (Figure 2, Supplementary Figure 6, and Supplementary Tables 1, 2), and the effects depended on light color, incubation day, incubation day squared, and year (Supplementary Figure 7)
We investigated if ALAN of different spectra affects incubation behavior, and how incubation behavior relates to fitness in two consecutive years

Summary

Introduction

Artificial light at night (ALAN) is considered a polluter of natural environments due to the profound effects it has on wildlife (Hölker et al, 2010). Light is an important physiological signal, providing ALAN with ample targets to affect physiological processes and behavior (Falcón et al, 2020). To effectively mitigate negative effects of light pollution, we need to understand how ALAN affects different species, and how light intensity and light spectrum modulate these effects (Gaston et al, 2015). Nestling condition might be further affected through parental behavior, as ALAN can increase parental provisioning rates (Titulaer et al, 2012), but this is not always observed (Welbers et al, 2017)

Methods

Results

Conclusion