Nature and extent of ecological impacts of vehicle headlights

人工夜间照明对自然环境造成了巨大的人为压力。这一日益增长的国际研究领域几乎完全集中在静态光源的排放上，例如城市路灯的排放。与此同时，人们对移动光源的生态影响几乎一无所知，最重要的是那些来自汽车前灯的光源。尽管有令人信服的理由表明，它们造成的生态压力非常不同，更加普遍，而且意义重大。具体地说，与路灯相比，车头灯的排放是：(I)沿着全球几乎所有3600万公里的道路排放，大大扩大了它们的影响范围；(Ii)以水平投射的光束形式发射，以更高的强度传播得更远；(Iii)生物体所经历的不规则定时脉冲，可能会对视觉系统和行为造成重大干扰。我们将通过确定车辆前灯发出的光对昆虫视觉系统造成的影响的性质和程度，从而确定它们的方位和飞行行为，从而推动这一领域的发展。首先，我们将使用建模和现场测量来表征车头灯排放的扩散。其次，实验室实验将确定对动物视觉适应、定向和飞行行为的相关影响。最后，这些发现将被用来建立汽车前照灯生态影响的当前和未来的时空变化。这项研究对政策和监管具有重要意义，因为汽车前照灯的强度和光谱正在增加，可能对生态危害更大，预计到2050年，全球交通水平将翻一番，全球道路长度将增长60%。

Artificial nighttime lighting is a profound anthropogenic pressure on the natural environment. This growing area of international research has focused almost exclusively on emissions from static light sources, such as those from urban streetlights. Meanwhile, virtually nothing is known about the ecological impacts of mobile sources of lighting, most significantly those arising from vehicle headlights. This is despite convincing reasons suggesting the ecological pressure they cause is very different, far more pervasive, and significant. Specifically, compared to streetlights, headlight emissions are: (i) emitted along virtually all of the 36 million km of roads worldwide, significantly expanding their area of influence; (ii) emitted as horizontally projected beams that travel further at higher intensities; and (iii) experienced by organisms as irregularly timed pulses that may cause major perturbations in visual systems and behaviour. We will push the frontiers by determining the nature and extent of impacts on insect vision systems - and consequently their orientation and flight behaviour - caused by light emissions from vehicle headlights. First, we will use modelling and field measurements to characterise the spread of headlight emissions. Second, laboratory experiments will determine associated impacts on animal visual adaptation, orientation and flight behaviour. Finally, these findings will be used to establish current and future spatio-temporal variation in ecological impacts of vehicle headlights. This research has important implications for policy and regulation, because vehicle headlights are increasing in intensity and spectra that may be more ecologically harmful, and there is projected doubling of global traffic levels and 60% growth in global road length by 2050.