Abstract

Night-flying pollinators, such as hawkmoths, are particularly vulnerable to the global spread of urban artificial lighting which is changing nighttime environments worldwide, impacting organisms and their interactions. Incident light quality can alter flower and leaf color perception by insects, depending on the emission spectra of light sources and the spectral sensitivity of insects. We asked, using Manduca sexta visual models, whether color contrast against natural backgrounds is altered by artificial lights for flowers and leaves of 16 plant species with an estimated long history of coevolution with hawkmoth pollinators. Specifically, we compared the perception of flowers and leaves by hawkmoths under artificial lights, including light-emitting diodes (5000 K LED), mercury vapor (MV), and high-pressure sodium (HPS) artificial lights, with the perception under natural illuminations. The models we implemented estimate that LED and HPS lighting change hawkmoth perception of flowers and leaves, with color loci appearing nearer to each other in hawkmoths perceptual space than they would be under natural nighttime conditions. Receptor Noise Limited models show that under the different lighting conditions hawkmoths would still discriminate flowers from their leaves in most but not all species. Consequently, artificial lights likely alter perception by hawkmoths of floral and leaf signals possibly affecting interactions and fitness of plants and pollinators. Our results emphasize the intricate and insidious ways in which human-made environments impact species interactions. Further studies should confirm whether light pollution represents a novel selective force to nocturnal interacting partners as emerging evidence suggests. Addressing the effects of artificial lighting is crucial for designing infrastructure development strategies that minimize these far-reaching effects on ecosystem functioning.

中文翻译：

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人造光改变了天蛾-植物相互作用系统中传粉者的视觉感知

摘要

天蛾等夜间飞行的传粉媒介特别容易受到城市人工照明在全球范围内传播的影响，这种照明正在改变全世界的夜间环境，影响生物体及其相互作用。入射光质量可以改变昆虫对花和叶颜色的感知，具体取决于光源的发射光谱和昆虫的光谱敏感性。我们使用Manduca sexta视觉模型询问16 种植物的花和叶与自然背景的颜色对比是否会因人造光而改变，这些植物估计与天蛾传粉者有长期的共同进化历史。具体来说，我们比较了天蛾在人造光（包括发光二极管（5000 K LED）、汞蒸气（MV）和高压钠（HPS）人造光下）对花朵和叶子的感知与自然照明下的感知。我们实施的模型估计，LED 和 HPS 照明改变了天蛾对花朵和叶子的感知，与自然夜间条件下相比，天蛾感知空间中的颜色位点显得更加接近。受体噪声有限模型表明，在不同的光照条件下，大多数但不是所有物种的天蛾仍然会区分花朵和叶子。因此，人造光可能会改变天蛾对花和叶信号的感知，可能影响植物和传粉者的相互作用和适应性。我们的结果强调了人造环境影响物种相互作用的复杂而阴险的方式。进一步的研究应该证实光污染是否代表了夜间互动伙伴的一种新的选择性力量，正如新出现的证据所表明的那样。解决人工照明的影响对于设计基础设施发展战略至关重要，以最大限度地减少对生态系统功能的深远影响。