Stacking the odds: light pollution may shift the balance in an ancient predator-prey arms race

1. Artificial night-lighting threatens to disrupt strongly conserved light-dependent processes in animals and may have cascading effects on ecosystems as species interactions become altered. Insectivorous bats and their prey have been involved in a nocturnal, coevolutionary arms race for millions of years. Lights may interfere with anti-bat defensive behaviours in moths, and disrupt a complex and globally ubiquitous interaction between bats and insects, ultimately leading to detrimental consequences for ecosystems on a global scale. 2. We combined experimental and mathematical approaches to determine effects of light pollution on a free-living bat–insect community. We compared prey selection by Cape serotine bats Neoromicia capensis in naturally unlit and artificially lit conditions using a manipulative field experiment, and developed a probabilistic model based on a suite of prey-selection factors to explain differences in observed diet. 3. Moth consumption by N. capensis was low under...

1. 人工夜间照明可能会严重干扰动物体内高度保守的光依赖型生理过程，且随着物种互作模式发生改变，还可能对生态系统产生级联效应。食虫蝙蝠与其猎物之间已经进行了长达数百万年的夜行性协同进化军备竞赛。灯光可能会干扰蛾类针对蝙蝠的防御行为，破坏蝙蝠与昆虫之间这一复杂且全球普遍存在的种间互作，最终在全球范围内对生态系统造成不利影响。
2. 本研究结合实验与数学建模方法，探究光污染对野外自由生存的蝙蝠-昆虫群落的影响。通过控制性野外实验，对比了海角棕蝠（Neoromicia capensis）在自然无光照与人工光照条件下的猎物选择偏好，并基于一系列猎物选择相关因子构建概率模型，以解释观测到的食谱差异。
3. 海角棕蝠（N. capensis）在……条件下的蛾类取食量较低。