Dim light pollution prevents diapause induction in urban and rural moths

1. Light pollution is increasingly affecting biodiversity and may also disrupt seasonal adaptations. Even dim artificial light, such as skyglow—which can spread far beyond urban areas—can interfere with using photoperiod as a seasonal cue.
2. Here, we test how light pollution impacts diapause induction and whether urban evolution counteracts it, by using common-garden experiments with a common, widespread geometrid moth (Chiasmia clathrata). We raised offspring from urban and rural populations from North- and Mid-European countries in treatments with and without dim light at night.
3. The dim light treatment strongly increased direct development overall—with no evidence for urban adaptation to it—but distinctly more so in Mid- than in North-European populations.
4. Because diapause induction is critical for surviving winter, these results indicate that dim but widespread light pollution may have detrimental effects on insect populations, especially so at mid-latitudes, and may hence exp..., ,

1. 光污染正日益威胁生物多样性，还可能扰乱生物的季节适应性。即便是微弱的人工光源，例如可在城市以外区域大范围扩散的天光（skyglow），也会干扰生物利用光周期作为季节信号的生理过程。
2. 本研究以广布常见的尺蛾（Chiasmia clathrata）为研究对象，开展普通花园实验（common-garden experiments），旨在探究光污染对滞育诱导的影响，以及城市演化是否能够抵消该影响。我们分别培养了来自北欧与中欧国家的城市、乡村种群的子代，并设置了夜间存在微弱光照与夜间无光照两种处理条件。
3. 整体而言，微弱光照处理显著促进了直接发育，且未发现针对该效应的城市适应性，但中欧种群的这种促进效果明显强于北欧种群。
4. 由于滞育诱导对昆虫越冬存活至关重要，上述结果表明，这种微弱却广泛存在的光污染可能对昆虫种群产生不利影响，在中纬度地区尤为显著，因此或会exp..., ,