Blinded by the Light! How Light Pollution Affects the Behavior, Physiology, and Ecology of Birds - Livestream

For 4 billion years, life has evolved under dark nights, brightened only by the moon and stars. The light/dark cycle dictated by the earth’s rotation around the sun is one of the most reliable environmental cues on the planet, and so nearly all living organisms have mechanisms for detecting and responding to light in their environment. Birds use daylight as a cue for all kinds of things â€" waking up in the morning, breeding in the spring, orientation when migrating, etc. Light pollution disrupts this cue, leading to changes in behavior and physiology, which can scale up to affect whole ecosystems. Join us to learn about the diverse ways in which light pollution affects our local birds, what this means for the broader ecosystem, and what we (humans) can do about it.

Speaker: Valentina Alaasam, University of Nevada, Reno

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