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Spectral optimization of beacon lights for the protection of night‐swarming mayflies
Author(s) -
Mészáros Ádám,
Kriska György,
Egri Ádám
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
insect conservation and diversity
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.061
H-Index - 39
eISSN - 1752-4598
pISSN - 1752-458X
DOI - 10.1111/icad.12446
Subject(s) - light pollution , swarming (honey bee) , phototaxis , mayfly , moonlight , ecology , environmental science , biology , physics , optics , botany , nymph
Abstract 1. Negative ecological effects of artificial night‐time illumination on wildlife are becoming more and more widely investigated. Flight‐to‐light behaviour of insects is a well‐known phenomenon, which becomes really conspicuous when numerous individuals are simultaneously attracted to light. Mass mortality of night‐swarming mayflies at lamp‐lit urbanized areas, particularly at bridges, is a well‐known phenomenon. 2. White beacon lights are able to keep the mayfly swarms above the water surface. Firstly, it is beneficial for the offspring particularly in the case of protected species. Secondly, this method facilitates maintaining traffic safety on the bridge. 3. Our primary aim was to find the optimal emission spectrum for the mayfly‐protecting beacons. With equal‐intensity quasi‐monochromatic light sources, we measured the attraction of Ephoron virgo and Caenis macrura mayflies to light as a function of wavelength in the 432–744 nm spectral range. 4. We established that phototaxis of these mayflies increases with decreasing wavelength. We also estimated the attractiveness of different light source types widely used in public lighting to E. virgo . According to our results, lamp types emitting light rich in short wavelengths (cool white/bluish to the human eye) are noticeably more attractive to E. virgo and to other night‐swarming mayflies than lamp types with longer‐wavelength‐dominated emission spectra (warm white/yellowish to the human eye). 5. Finally, we report on the construction of the very first, permanently installed, spectrally optimized mayfly‐protecting beacon system on the bridge of Tahitótfalu (Northern Hungary), which was realized as a practical application of our results.