TY - JOUR

T1 - Cascading effects of artificial light at night

T2 - Resource-mediated control of herbivores in a grassland ecosystem

AU - Bennie, J

AU - Davies, T. W.

AU - Cruse, D

AU - Inger, R

AU - Gaston, KJ

PY - 2015/5/1

Y1 - 2015/5/1

N2 - © 2015 The Authors. Artificial light at night has a wide range of biological effects on both plants and animals. Here, we review mechanisms by which artificial light at night may restructure ecological communities by modifying the interactions between species. Such mechanisms may be top-down (predator, parasite or grazer controlled), bottom-up (resource-controlled) or involve non-trophic processes, such as pollination, seed dispersal or competition. We present results from an experiment investigating both top-down and bottom-up effects of artificial light at night on the population density of pea aphids Acyrthosiphon pisum in a diverse artificial grassland community in the presence and absence of predators and under low-level light of different spectral composition. We found no evidence for top-down control of A. pisum in this system, but did find evidence for bottom-up effects mediated through the impact of light on flower head density in a leguminous food plant. These results suggest that physiological effects of light on a plant species within a diverse plant community can have detectable demographic effects on a specialist herbivore.

AB - © 2015 The Authors. Artificial light at night has a wide range of biological effects on both plants and animals. Here, we review mechanisms by which artificial light at night may restructure ecological communities by modifying the interactions between species. Such mechanisms may be top-down (predator, parasite or grazer controlled), bottom-up (resource-controlled) or involve non-trophic processes, such as pollination, seed dispersal or competition. We present results from an experiment investigating both top-down and bottom-up effects of artificial light at night on the population density of pea aphids Acyrthosiphon pisum in a diverse artificial grassland community in the presence and absence of predators and under low-level light of different spectral composition. We found no evidence for top-down control of A. pisum in this system, but did find evidence for bottom-up effects mediated through the impact of light on flower head density in a leguminous food plant. These results suggest that physiological effects of light on a plant species within a diverse plant community can have detectable demographic effects on a specialist herbivore.

U2 - 10.1098/rstb.2014.0131

DO - 10.1098/rstb.2014.0131

M3 - Article

VL - 370

JO - Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

JF - Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society B: Biological Sciences

SN - 0962-8436

M1 - 20140131

ER -