article_snippet: They may light our paths at night, but streetlamps and other sources of artificial light at night time affect the growth and flowering of plants as well as the number of insects, according to a new study.
article_snippet: Researchers have shown that light pollution can impact the natural environment in complex ways that may be hard to predict.
article_snippet: Given that cities are lit up 24-hours-a-day in many developed countries, there are fears that such ecological impacts may be widespread.
article_snippet: Researchers have shown that light pollution can impact the natural environment in complex ways that may be hard to predict.
article_snippet: Researchers from the University of Exeter simulated the effects of street lighting on artificial grassland plots containing a community of invertebrates at night.
article_snippet: ‘Artificial light at night is one of the most obvious environmental changes affecting the habitat of wild animals.
article_snippet: ‘The global increase in light pollution poses new challenges to wild species, but we’re very much in the early stages of understanding the effects of exposure to light at night.'
article_snippet: These are the first findings from major long-term experiments … and already reveal how profound the impacts of artificial night time lighting can be on even simple communities of organisms.
article_snippet: Dr Jonathan Bennie added: ‘Our results suggest that by lighting up Our night time environment Our trigger complex effects on natural food webs.
article_snippet: While we are all aware that street lights often attract insects at night, we show that they may have more permanent, widespread impacts on wildlife and ecosystems.
highlights_snippet: Researchers from the University of Exeter simulated the effects of street lighting on artificial grassland plots containing insects .
  