Wellington, Dec 12 (Agency) With New Zealand in danger of losing its cloak of darkness, awareness of the environmental impact needs to be brought to light, warned a new research published on Tuesday. Artificial light at night, which is considered the fastest-growing pollutant worldwide, has grown rapidly in New Zealand and had negative impacts on the country’s plants and animals, according to a study published in the New Zealand Journal of Ecology. Ellen Cieraad, an author of the study said lit surface area increased by 37 percent in the last decade, and brightness increased by 87 percent, faster than the global average.
“Plants and animals around us rely on the predictable rhythms of dark and light under which they evolved,” Cieraad said. Too much light at night can disrupt the daily routines and behavior patterns of animals such as bats, insects and seabirds, and affect the growth and seasonal cycles of trees, she said. Bridgette Farnworth, a co-author of the study, further explained that small changes to wavelength, timing, or lighting intensity could play a key role in mitigating the impacts on dusk-dwelling animals. “This is not about banishing light. It’s an opportunity for us, as a nation, to think about how we can convert ourselves to be ‘shadow architects’ and build eco-friendly places that include darkness as part of the habitat,” Farnworth said.