The impacts of artificial light at night on urban ecosystems

The rapid increase and expansion in urbanization in the last decades is the focus of most publications on the urban environment. The research coincided with growing concerns about the impacts of artificial light at night on urban ecosystems, human health, astronomy, and the aesthetics of the night sky. The general omission from urban design research is beginning to change as prominent organizations begin to realize the potential dangers of artificial light at night. Major future research directions lie in both urban ecology and its interface with urban design and planning. Accessibility is required to facilitate dialogue between those engaged in making decisions about lighting the urban world and urban ecologists. The ecological implications of light at night can be broadly partitioned into direct effects on behavior and the combined direct and indirect physiological effects, which may include changes in development, reproduction, immune function, and survival.