Abstract
BackgroundArtificial light at night (ALAN) is one form of human-induced rapid environmental changes (HIREC) and is strongly interfering with natural dark–light cycles. Some personality types within a species might be better suited to cope with environmental change and therefore might be selected upon under ongoing urbanization.ResultsWe used LED street lamps in a large outdoor enclosure to experimentally investigate the effects of ALAN on activity patterns, movement and interaction of individuals of two species, the bank vole (Myodes glareolus) and the striped field mouse (Apodemus agrarius). We analyzed effects combined with individual boldness score. Both species reduced their activity budget during daylight hours. While under natural light conditions home ranges were larger during daylight than during nighttime, this difference vanished under ALAN. Conspecifics showed reduced home range overlap, proximity and activity synchrony when subjected to nighttime illumination. Changes in movement patterns in reaction to ALAN were not associated with differences in boldness score of individuals.ConclusionsOur results suggest that light pollution can lead to changes in movement patterns and individual interactions in small mammals. This could lead to fitness consequences on the population level.
Highlights
Artificial light at night (ALAN) is one form of human-induced rapid environmental changes (HIREC) and is strongly interfering with natural dark–light cycles
The index differed between species and within animals before and after ALAN was switched on, while individual boldness score had no influence (Table 1): all animals were more active at daylight during the control period with natural light conditions than during the time when nights were artificially illuminated
Home range size was not influenced by species but bolder animals had smaller home ranges than shyer individuals (Table 1, see Additional file 1)
Summary
Artificial light at night (ALAN) is one form of human-induced rapid environmental changes (HIREC) and is strongly interfering with natural dark–light cycles. Some personality types within a species might be better suited to cope with environmental change and might be selected upon under ongoing urbanization. HIREC includes habitat loss and fragmentation, the spread of exotic species, harvesting by humans, climate change and pollutants [2]. It poses a great challenge for a vast majority of species and it is important to understand which characteristics of a species makes it better suited to cope with these new environmental conditions than others. Some individuals within a species could be better suited to respond and cope with HIREC by having a certain animal personality type [3]. HIREC can potentially act as a strong bottleneck for certain behavioral types in a species and thereby reduce between-individual behavioral variation, which could have severe consequences for population dynamics and ecological interactions
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