Light pollution can cause spring to arrive 1 week early

Many cities live without night due to the bright light from street lights and surrounding buildings. This really brings vitality and exciting attraction to residents and tourists but it also has many potential risks from urban light pollution.

A study conducted by a group of UK scientists found that urban light pollution may cause plants to sprout earlier than usual and spring earlier. New studies also recorded a shift of up to 7.5 days and early sprouting also had effects on animals and plants.

According to Anna Menin's report with The Guardian magazine, this is not the first time the impact of light pollution on plants studied in large scale in the UK. In a new study, a 13-year worth of data warehouse was examined, mass scientists played an important role by volunteering to record when they first discovered leaves with corn spots. , oak, ash and oak.

The data is provided by The Woodland Trust, a charity organization, as part of the Nature's Calendar initiative.

The Woodland Trust's mass science manager Kate Lewthwaite said: "Analysis of the data of Nature's Calendar shows that the pace of urbanization is continuing to put pressure on the natural world in a way that they We cannot see with our eyes, when the seasons become shorter and less predictable, our wildlife must fight to keep up with the fluctuations affecting the environment and the source. "Hopefully, this study will lead to new thoughts on how to solve problems and help impact future development decisions."

Urban light pollution causes trees to sprout earlier.(Photo: Ed Dunens / Flickr).

The researchers behind this work gave an example of a broken life-cycle insect - winter moth. The proliferation of winter moths, for example, is the new oak-eating species that are likely to be affected, and thus continue to affect birds that eat them in the natural food chain.

Caterpillars are also an insect that synchronizes their life cycle with changes in seasons. Therefore, they can turn into butterflies at the wrong time when the main source of food is young leaves that bloom.

Richard Ffrench-Constant, leading the research team from the University of Exeter, said: "The study's findings suggest that the timing of budging in forest plants may be affected by light pollution and show that, small trees grow under street lights are even more likely to be affected ".

He added: " This phenomenon has an adverse impact on nature, especially when these effects are increasing. A positive result from the study shows that red light is extremely harmful to this effect. So we will have the opportunity to create better, more intelligent light sources with nature. "

It is clear that the study only focuses on the correlation, not the causal link between light pollution and the early spring phenomenon in the UK. Besides the cause of the artificial light of street lamps, there may be many other factors and causes, more research is needed.

Small trees grow under street lights even more likely to be affected.

However, local governments in the UK need to be responsible for turning on and off street lights. The study also led to new approaches in terms of time and type of light that should be used.

This is not only the way in which light pollution affects our living environment, it also obscures the view of space and causes other adverse effects.

Scientists who carried out this study particularly highlighted the role of mass scientists in helping them gather meaningful data about changing seasons in the year.

This is an important study and should continue to be done, cooperation between businesses and research institutes is needed to find solutions to manage the level of light in a truly sustainable urban environment.

The study is now published in the Royal Society B. Proceedings magazine.