Tuesday, December 10th
In-Person Meeting
Virtual Zoom Option
7:30 PM EST
What light pollution means for insect conservation
Avalon Owens
Rowland Institute Fellow
Nearly all species on earth use the sun, moon, and stars for self-orientation in time and space by attuning to celestial light cues that have been reliable for all of evolutionary history… until now. In the 21st century, increasing numbers of increasingly bright artificial lights extend the day, eclipse the moon, and obscure the stars even in nominally protected areas, with the night sky on average twice as bright today as it was only a decade ago. In this talk, I explore the ecological costs and evolutionary consequences of this transformation for insects. I look at how light pollution interferes with the bioluminescent courtship rituals of fireflies, and what it might mean for their future as cultural touchstones and flagship species. I also discuss moth flight-to-light behavior, a bizarre phenomenon leveraged in long-term surveys that is as harmful to moths as it is beneficial to entomologists, and ask how our perception of the conservation status of insects would change if the compulsion of the moth to the flame were subject to evolution by natural selection.
