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How different colors of artificial light at night affect behavior in sandy beach isopods

Circadian Biology Weekly Brief ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗

Updated Mar 21, 2026

Abstract

All artificial light at night (ALAN) sources examined disrupt isopod activity and feeding behavior.

High-Pressure Sodium lamps and both warm and cool white LEDs were tested against natural light conditions.
Cool white LEDs caused the most severe disruption to isopod activity and feeding, while warm LEDs had the least severe impact.
Growth of the isopod Tylos spinulosus was only minimally affected by ALAN.
Warm LEDs may be more suitable for mitigating the effects of ALAN on isopods.

Simplified

Artificial light at night (ALAN) is a widespread human-induced disturbance, whose effects have been documented in many ecosystems. However, limited attention has been given to the source of the lights behind ALAN, so this study examined three of them: High-Pressure Sodium (HPS) lamps and warm and cool white Light-Emitting Diodes (LEDs). Laboratory experiments compared the effects of each type of light to natural day/night conditions, upon the activity, feeding behavior and growth of the isopod Tylos spinulosus. Tanks equipped with actographs monitored locomotor activity, while separate tanks were utilized to assess food consumption and growth under natural and ALAN conditions. Our results show that all ALAN sources disrupt and reduce isopods' activity and feeding behavior, with cool and warm LEDs being the most severe and mildest, respectively. Instead, ALAN had only minor effects on isopod growth. Our findings suggest that warm LEDs may be preferable for ALAN mitigation purposes.

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Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

PubMed

How different colors of artificial light at night affect behavior in sandy beach isopods

Abstract

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Competing interests

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