Data from: Quantifying the attractiveness of broad-spectrum street lights to aerial nocturnal insects

1. Sodium street lights, dominated by long wavelengths of light, are being replaced by broad-spectrum, white lights globally, in particular light-emitting diodes (LEDs). These white lights typically require less energy to operate and are therefore considered ‘eco-friendly’. However, little attention has been paid to the impacts white lights may have upon local wildlife populations.
2. We compared insect attraction to orange (high-pressure sodium [HPS]) and white (metal halide [MH] and LED) street lights experimentally using portable street lights and custom-made flight-intercept traps.
3. Significantly more (>five times as many) insects were attracted to white MH street lights than white (4,250 K) LED and HPS lights. There was no statistical difference in the numbers of insects attracted to LED and HPS lights for most taxa caught. However, rarefaction shows a greater diversity of insects caught at LED than HPS lights.
4. Policy implications. With the current, large-scale conversion to white light-emitting diode (LED) lighting, our results give insight into how changes to street light technology may affect wildlife populations and communities. We recommend avoiding metal halide (MH) light installations as they attract many more insects than competing technologies. We highlight the need to tailor LED lighting to prevent disturbances across multiple insect taxa. 07-Aug-2017

1. 以长波长光为主的钠灯（sodium street lights）目前正于全球范围内被广谱白光照明取代，其中尤以发光二极管（light-emitting diodes, LEDs）照明应用最广。此类白光照明通常运行能耗更低，故被认为是“生态友好”型照明。但白光照明对本地野生动物种群可能造成的影响却鲜有研究关注。
2. 本研究采用便携式路灯与定制飞行拦截诱捕器（flight-intercept traps）开展野外实验，对比了昆虫对橙色（高压钠灯，high-pressure sodium, HPS）与白色（金属卤化物灯，metal halide, MH 及LED）路灯的趋光性。
3. 实验结果表明，白色金属卤化物路灯吸引的昆虫数量较白色（4250K）LED灯与高压钠灯高出5倍以上，差异具有统计学显著性。对于多数捕获的昆虫分类群而言，LED灯与高压钠灯吸引的昆虫数量并无显著统计学差异；但稀疏分析（rarefaction）结果显示，LED灯捕获的昆虫物种多样性高于高压钠灯。
4. 政策启示：当前全球正大规模推进路灯向白色发光二极管（LED）照明转型，本研究结果可为理解路灯技术变革如何影响野生动物种群与群落提供科学参考。我们建议避免安装金属卤化物（MH）路灯，因其相较于其他同类技术会吸引更多昆虫；同时强调需对LED照明进行定制化优化，以防止其对多种昆虫类群造成生态干扰。2017年8月7日