Data from: Colours of the night: spectrum-specific impacts of light pollution on biota
Data files
Oct 24, 2025 version files 1.13 MB
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Data_S1_Czarnecka_et_al..xlsx
1.13 MB
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README.md
5.01 KB
Abstract
Artificial light at night (ALAN) disrupts ecosystems by altering natural light cycles and affecting species’ physiology and behavior. This meta-analysis examines how different wavelengths and intensities of ALAN impact organisms. Broad-spectrum “cool” light, enriched with blue and ultraviolet radiation, strongly disrupts circadian rhythms, melatonin production, and nocturnal activity. However, against common belief, broad-spectrum "warm" light is almost as impactful as broad-spectrum "cool" light without ultraviolet radiation, even though physiological processes are mostly influenced by short wavelengths. The impact of ALAN is not consistently dose-dependent, as even dim light often causes substantial biological disruptions. Thus, effective mitigation strategies require tailored solutions to specific ecological contexts and should generally avoid nocturnal illumination unless clearly needed, as there is no single “safe dose” and “safe spectrum” of ALAN.
**M. Czarnecka, M. Grubisic, F. Pilotto, A. Jechow, F. Hölker.
Data S1: Spectrum-specific impacts of light pollution on biota
Data used to estimate effects of different light types and light levels on organismal physiology, behaviour, and community/population
File description
Data_S1_Czarnecka_et_al..xlsx: file contains data used to estimate effects of different light types and light levels on organismal physiology, behaviour, and community/population with calculated effect sizes (Hedges g).
Description of the columns:
Study, ID – identification number of the study
Authors – authors of the source publication
Title, Publication.year, - title of the source publication and year of publishing
Source, DOI - journal name of the source publication and DOI
Study.type - study type: field or laboratory
Habitat – study habitat
Phylum, Class, Order, Species - taxonomic classification of the studied organism
Functional - functional groups according to type of food consumed:
- Carnivores: species deriving food mainly from the consumption of animal tissues (including insects)
- Non-carnivores: species actively consuming both plant and animal materials (omnivores) and exclusively plant materials (herbivores)
- Bloodsucker: species feeding on blood
- Parasite: parasite species
Measured.effect - measured variable or parameter
Measure.comment – additional information about measured variable
Category – category of studies (physiology, behaviour, life history traits “LHT,” populations and communities)
Sub.category and Sub.category1 – more specific study subcategories within the listed categories and subcategories, respectively
Activity - activity patterns of studied animals:
- Nocturnal: animals that are active primarily during night. Crepuscular animals (active during twilight) are also included.
- Diurnal: Animals that are active primarily during daytime
- Cathemeral: Animals that can be active during the day or night (activity pattern is characterized by irregular intervals)
Light_Source - type of lighting used in the study
Light_Type_coded”: categories of light sources. They include broad spectrum (BS) light sources emitting light across a wide range of wavelengths and narrow-spectrum (NS) light emitting narrow bands of wavelengths.
- BS cool: cool white light with high correlated colour temperature (CCT) > 3000 K, characterized by relatively high blue light content (> 15%);
- BS warm: warm white light with low CCT < 3000 K and reduced blue light content (< 15%);
- BS_UV: cool white light with high CCT > 3000 K and relatively high blue light content (> 15%), but also containing UV radiation.
- NS blue: emitting a narrow band of wavelengths in the blue spectrum;
- NS green: emitting a narrow band of wavelengths in the green spectrum;
- NS yellow-red: emitting a narrow band of wavelengths in the yellow-orange spectrum
Control_Lux – illuminance in control conditions
Night_Lux – illuminance in disturbed night conditions
Night_Lx_coded – categories of light levels in disturbed night conditions: low - illuminance >0.01 ≤5 lx; moderate - illuminance >5.1 ≤ 20 lx; high - illuminance >20.1 ≤180 lx
Control_Mean – mean values for the control groups
Control_SE - standard errors for the control groups
Control_SD – standard deviations for the control groups
Control_95% CI_low and Control_95% CI_upper - Lower and upper 95% confidence limits for the control groups
Control N – sample size of the control groups
Control_median – median values for the control groups
Control Q1 and Control Q3 – first (Q1) and third (Q3) quartiles for the control groups
Experimental_Mean – mean values for the experimental groups
Exp_95% CI_low and Exp_95% CI_upper - lower and upper 95% confidence limits for the experimental groups
Experimental_SE – standard errors for the experimental groups
Experimental_SD - standard deviations for the experimental groups
Experimental_median – median values for the experimental groups
Experimental_Q1 and Experimental_Q3 - first (Q1) and third(Q3) quartiles for the experimental groups
Experimental_N - sample size of the experimental groups
Effect size (ES) – calculated effect sizes (Hedges g)
SE – standard errors for the effect sizes
Effects size_absolute – absolute values of the effect sizes
Effect size_sign – effect size values with reversed sign, indicating the direction of the effect, calculated only for those results which were included in the further analysis
Location – study location
Included (directional ES) – Effect sizes showing the direction of the effect, included in the further analysis
We conducted literature searches in electronic academic databases: Web of Science and Scopus for peer-reviewed papers published in English until 30 August 2023. We used the following terms TITLE-ABS-KEY ( ( "Artificial light*" OR "Light* pollution" OR "Light* at night" OR "night time light*" ) AND ( "light intensity" OR "spectral composition" OR "spectral sensitivity" OR "colo*r" OR "wavelength" OR "LED light" OR "HPS light" OR "red light" OR "blue light" ) AND ( "species" OR "ecosystem*" OR "ecology" OR "community composition" OR "phototaxis" OR "flight to light" OR "stress" OR "abundance" OR "behav*" OR "reproduction" OR "predat*" OR "activity" OR "physiolog*" OR "melatonin" OR "development" OR "trophic" OR "biomass" OR "pollination" OR "phenolog*" OR "photosynt*" OR "budburst" OR "leaf" OR "flowering" ) ). The search returned 1694 studies (after duplicates removal). We also checked the bibliography of eligible articles to extract all relevant papers and therefore included 64 additional studies. The articles were screened for eligibility and we selected studies that met the following inclusion criteria: (1) laboratory and field studies testing biological effects of ALAN on organisms (excluding humans); (2) studies with a control group (dark night conditions) and treatment groups exposed to ALAN with illuminance up to 180 lx; (3) studies with at least 2 replicates per treatment and providing information on light types used and light levels (if necessary, we converted non-photometric quantities lighting units to illuminance in lux, see details below); (4) studies containing data on means, sample size and estimation of variation. If only box plots were presented, we extracted the median and interquartile range. In total, 314 studies (with 4 905 effect sizes) met our inclusion criteria.