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

自生命首次出现以来，地球表面每天、每月和季节性的自然光周期都在发生，这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，由于人造光进入夜间环境，这些自然模式被大大破坏了。这种破坏来自于一系列的来源，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20%以上的陆地面积直接或间接（通过天光——人造夜间光被大气中的分子或气溶胶散射，向上发射或反射）经历了人工夜间照明，并且每年以6%左右的速度增长。卫星和载人航天飞行所获得的地球夜间图像经常说明这个问题的严重程度。在夜间环境中引入人造光给人类带来了重大而实质性的好处。但是，鉴于生物系统基本上是由光形成的，因此不可避免地会产生一系列广泛的环境影响。研究强调了人造夜间灯光对个体生物的生理、觅食、日常活动、迁徙行为、繁殖和死亡、物种的丰富和分布以及群落的组成和功能的影响。然而，这些影响的空间格局和随时间的变化仍然知之甚少。这在很大程度上是因为，虽然这些反应通常取决于人工夜间照明的不同波长（被认为是颜色），但在地理尺度上如何变化的数据在很大程度上是缺乏的。这意味着很难确定人工照明对环境的影响最受关注的领域，以及应该集中注意优化人类利益和环境影响之间的权衡的领域。在大规模和快速引入新照明技术和使用“智能照明”的时代，这一点尤为重要；许多街道和其他照明系统正在转向“更白”的灯，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，并确定整个欧洲夜间环境中人工照明的生态影响的可能严重程度，使用的数据来自一个新的和很大程度上未开发的来源，即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。

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.