Urban light pollution: Understanding impacts on aquatic environments

近几十年来，世界经历了大规模的城市化。从1950年到2018年，居住在城市的人数从30%增长到55%，预计到2050年这一数字将增加到68%。随着城市化的发展，夜间人造光（ALAN）无处不在，这被认为是最普遍的环境改变形式之一。虽然人造光对现代社会来说很方便，让人类在夜间保持安全活跃，但最近的研究已经记录了一系列分类群的大规模意外生态影响。然而，人们仍然普遍倾向于陆地生物，对水生环境的影响相对较小。尽管许多城市在河流和沿海地区发展（例如，世界上大约80%的特大城市[100万至1000万人口]和40%的主要城市[100万至1000万人口]位于沿海地区）。城市与水生环境共存的频率很高，这意味着鱼类很可能会遇到人工照明的区域。对于在淡水和海水之间迁徙的双栖物种来说，接触ALAN是不可避免的。该项目将利用南安普顿大学的水力学实验室来评估ALAN对感兴趣的鱼类的精细行为的影响。在此之后，将研究减轻已观察到的影响的方法，例如通过改变照明的强度和/或光谱组成。因此，该项目将对城市地区河流周边照明的设计和管理产生重要影响，并将帮助社会朝着更智能、更可持续的城市发展。

The world has undergone wide-scale urbanisation in recent decades. From 1950-2018 the number of people living in cities grew from 30% to 55%, and this value is projected to increase to 68% by 2050. Ubiquitous with urbanisation is Artificial Light at Night (ALAN), which is considered one of the most pervasive forms of environmental alteration. Although artificial light is convenient for modern society, allowing humans to stay safely active at night, recent research has documented wide-scale unintended ecological impacts across a range of taxa. However, there remains a general bias towards terrestrial organisms, with comparatively little on impacts to aquatic environments. This is despite many cities developing around rivers and coastal areas (e.g. approximately 80% of the world's mega-cities [> 10m people] and 40% of major cities [1 - 10m people] are located near the coast). The high frequency with which cities are co-located with aquatic environments means fish are likely to encounter artificially lit areas. For diadromous species, which migrate between fresh- and marine-waters, exposure to ALAN will be unavoidable. This project will utilise Hydraulics Laboratories at the University of Southampton to assess the impact of ALAN on the fine-scale behaviour of fish species of interest. Following this, methods of mitigating observed impacts, e.g. through altering the intensity and/ or spectral composition of lighting, will be investigated. As such, this project will have important implications for the design and management of lighting around rivers in urban areas and will help society progress towards smarter and more sustainable cities.