Impacts of Artificial Lighting at Night on Urban Birds in Shanghai With Citizen Science Data

Abstract

Artificial light at night (ALAN) is an essential infrastructure to support nighttime functions while serving as a significant indicator for urban vitality and economic development. However, the increasing prevalence of artificial lighting in urban areas threatens the health of urban residents of all kinds. Citizen science data are characterized by large sample size and complete spatio-temporal coverage, which have promising application prospects in ecological investigation and related research. In this context, focusing on Shanghai as the study area, this research explores the impact of nighttime light intensity on the distribution of urban birds. Using birding data from China Bird Report, from 2017 to 2023, ten common bird species were selected for the analysis. Based on ALAN remote sensing data, observed bird number varies as illumination radiance increases, revealing three patterns across species: decreasing, multimodal, and balanced. Specifically, most bird species were observed distributed in the lower light irradiance interval, i.e., 0 ~ 0.15 nW/(cm²·sr), while a few species, such as Nycticorax nycticorax and Passer montanus, exhibited an aggregation in higher light irradiance intervals at 75 nW/(cm²·sr) or above. The study revealed a preliminary correlation of the light irradiance and the distribution of urban bird species with a threshold of light irradiation for bird preference, providing evidences and strategic guidelines to reduce light pollution and improve bird-friendly nighttime environment in cities.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

Urban Birds / Artificial Light at Night / Bird Distribution / Light Irradiance / Light Pollution / Citizen Science Data

Highlight

	● Artificial light at night may affect urban birds in distribution, and observed bird number varies as illumination radiance increases, revealing three patterns across species: decreasing, multimodal, and balanced
	● Investigated birds generally preferred lower light irradiance, while a few species can adapt to higher light irradiance
	● Citizen science data are characterized by larger sample size and wider spatio-temporal coverage and can complement systematic bird surveys

1 Background

Landscape lighting has multiple functions such as illumination, environmental beautification, and artistic decoration. However, intensive artificial light at night (ALAN) may have serious impacts on wild lives and organisms^[1]~^[3]. The "Tribute in Light" landscape lighting installation in New York, an iconic symbol for commemorating the September 11 attacks, causes about 160, 000 birds deaths every year^[4].

Birds are among the species most affected by light pollution^[5]. ALAN affects birds' photoperiodic perception, disrupting their circadian rhythms, behavioral patterns, and hormone secretion, and altering their seasonal reproduction, immune function, and metabolic rate^{[6] [7]}, which are detrimental to bird health^[8] and can even affect the survival rates of urban-resident birds^[9]~^[11]. Nocturnal birds, especially migratory birds in flight orientation, have a greater percentage of optic rod cells in the retina for sensing light intensity^{[12] [13]} and are therefore more sensitive to increased light levels^{[14] [15]}. Existing research has shown that Parus major are observed altering their sleeping behavior under 1.6 lux of illumination^[16] and their exposure to white light can lead to reduced immune function and an increased risk of malaria infection^[17]. Similarly, reduced melatonin release is observed in Turdus Merula exposed to 0.3 lux of illumination^[18]. Passer montanus exposed to simulated urban lighting conditions are observed with lower melatonin levels and reduced species diversity and richness of the gut flora^[19].

Biological research on the nighttime artificial lighting environment based on ALAN remote sensing data has focused on the identification of areas impacted by artificial light^{[20] [21]}, and the relations between ALAN and migratory birds^{[22] [23]}. Studies have shown that light pollution has a considerable impact on urban bird diversity, i.e. bird diversity decreases with increasing irradiance^[24]. The degree of impact also varies by different bird species: insectivorous and omnivorous birds are more negatively affected, while carnivorous birds are nearly unaffected^[25]. Birds that primarily inhabit forests show significant declines in density due to artificial light, whereas birds living in farmland environments are more tolerant of artificial light to some extent^[26]. However, the impacts of light pollution on the distribution of different bird species are not fully understood: existing studies rarely address the critical thresholds of radiance affecting bird distributions at the urban scale^[27], and visually-sensitive light spectrums of different bird species in the same region is not clear^[23]. Most of the data used in such studies have relatively lower spatial accuracy, such as nighttime light remote sensing data (resolution greater than 500 m) from NPP VIIRS, DMSP/OLS, etc.^{[20] [25] [26]}, which limits the guide of these research findings for urban planning.

Currently, many countries and regions have implemented measures to reduce the impact of light pollution on birds. Since 2001, the DarkSky International has certified more than 200 International Dark Sky Places, which are required to "use quality outdoor lighting, effective policies to reduce light pollution, ongoing stewardship practices, and more"^[28]. In 2019, New York City required all new buildings to use bird-friendly glass filters to reduce building-related fatalities^[29]; three years later, a landmark light-related bill was introduced, requiring most non-essential outdoor lighting to be turned off or covered after 23:00^[30]. In China, the official implementation of Shanghai Municipal Environmental Protection Regulations became the nation's first local environmental regulation on light pollution^[31].

Unlike traditional bird data collection methods such as field investigations^[32] and GPS tracking^[33], which are highly time-costly therefore low-scale, "citizen science" data is low-cost and large-scale. Citizen science, generally refers to the invited or voluntary participation of non-experts in the collection, organization, and analysis of data, in order to solve scientific problems^[34]. Citizen science data, with an average annual recording number of birds in the millions, can offer new possibilities to characterize the abundance, distribution, and functional composition of bird species at large spatial and temporal scales and to test hypotheses, showing great potential for revealing spatial–temporal dynamics of geographic phenomena^{[35] [36]}. Although their data are subject to temporal and spatial distribution bias, studies have proven that citizen science data can be used as a reliable source of data through scientific processing methods. On the one hand, the use of big data modeling to analyze individual differences in the ability of participants to detect and identify birds can exclude high-risk participants^[37]; on the other hand, the accumulation of citizen science data up to a certain threshold can reach the level of research validity^[38]. Species distribution modeling can also be used to improve the even sampling of citizen science data^[37]. Birding enthusiasts can upload their observations of bird species and locations on platforms such like eBird, China Bird Report, and Movebank, and these citizen science databases are now widely adopted in research^[38].

This study innovatively combines ALAN remote sensing data and citizen science data, taking the urban area of Shanghai as a case study, to explore the relationship between ALAN intensity levels and bird behavioral patterns, contributing to the development of a bird-friendly nighttime environment in cities. It seeks to answer the following research questions: How might ALAN, as an important support for urban activities and vitality^{[39] [40]}, affect the behavioral patterns of birds in urban areas? Are there preferred illumination irradiance intervals for birds? And, how should urban management coordinate ALAN and bird conservation?

2 Research Methods

2.1 Definition of Nighttime

Nighttime is generally referred to as the period from dusk to dawn when the sun is below the horizon (below −6° solar azimuth)^[41]. The nighttime in this research was defined as the period from 18:00 to 06:00 the next day, covering the crepuscular time spans when most birds are more active and typical urban lighting hours^[42].

2.2 Selection of Study Site

In this research, Shanghai's city domain was taken as the study area, with a total area of 6, 340.5 km^2①. Shanghai is a key stopover on the East Asia–Australasian Flyway for migratory birds^[43]. By the end of 2022, a total of 519 species of wild birds, from 22 orders and 79 families, had been recorded within the study area, which accounted for approximately one-third of all bird species in China^[44]. Additionally, as an international megacity, Shanghai is known for its vibrant nighttime activities and seriously jeopardized by light pollution, making it a typical area for studying the impacts of ALAN on urban birds.

① Data source: official website of the Shanghai Municipal People’s Government.

2.3 Data Sources and Processing

2.3.1 Birding Data and Processing

The birding data used in this study was sourced from China Bird Report, which has recorded a total of 1, 399 species in A Checklist on the Classification and Distribution of the Birds of China (Fourth Edition) from May 2014 to November 2024, accounting for about 93% of the country's bird species and 16% of the world's bird species^②[45^]. The study adopted 606, 922 birding records within the study area from January 1, 2017 to December 31, 2023, and each record included information such as bird species name, amount of observed birds, observation coordinates, and observation time. After eliminating duplicate records of the same bird species observed at the same location and the same time, and manually removing obviously inaccurate data, 122, 077 birding records were obtained from 3, 253 observation sites, covering 500 species and a total of 391, 017 recorded birds (Tab.1).

② Data source: official website of China Bird Report.

2.3.2 Target Bird Species Selection

This study selected the top 10 most frequently observed bird species within the study area as the target species, including Passer montanus, Pycnonotus sinensis, Spilopelia chinensis, Turdus mandarinus, Acridotheres cristatellus, Egretta garzetta, Sinosuthora webbiana, Spodiopsar cineraceus, Nycticorax nycticorax, and Pica pica. These 10 generalized species have a wide range of ecological niches and strong adaptability, and are representative for studying the impacts of ALAN (Tab.2).

2.3.3 ALAN Remote Sensing Data and Processing

The ALAN remote sensing data were obtained from LuoJia1-01 satellite launched by Wuhan University, with a spatial resolution of 130 m. Radiometric calibration of the remote sensing images was performed using the equation officially provided, and the grayscale values were converted into value of irradiance using the following equation:

(1)L=D{N}^{3/2}\times {10}^{-10},

where L is the value of irradiance and DN is the grayscale value of the original luminous image.

After this processing, the magnitude of irradiance was unified with the VIIRS satellite data by using the following equation:

(2)L^{\mathrm{\prime }}=L\times \omega \times {10}^5,

where ω is the bandwidth ranging (460 ~ 980 nm), here set to 520 nm; L' is the irradiance after unit conversion in nW/(cm²·sr). The remote sensing images of the study area were clipped by the mask tool of GIS 10.2 to obtain the nighttime light data at 130-meter resolution (Fig.1).

2.3.4 Spatial Distribution Analysis of Birding Records and Irradiance Intervals

To explore the impacts of different illumination irradiance intervals of artificial lighting on the spatial distribution of birds, the birding data and the ALAN data were correlated to obtain the birding records–irradiance intervals map.

First, based on the irradiance classification of light pollution by previous research^[46][47], the urban nighttime illumination irradiance was graded into five intervals in this research: dark [0, 0.15), low brightness [0.15, 5), medium brightness [5, 25), high brightness [25, 75), and extreme brightness [75, +∞). Second, the observed species and their amounts from 2017 to 2023 were mapped on 1 km × 1 km grid cells (Fig.2), to derive the number of grid cells with birding records in each irradiance interval.

2.3.5 Statistical Analyses

In order to control the influence of other urbanization factors on the results, an ordinary least squares linear regression model was used to fit the relationship between nighttime illumination irradiance and the amount of observed birds. All statistical analyses were done by Stata 17.0 statistical software.

3 Results

3.1 General Characteristics of Birding Records

Generally, the bird observation sites within the study area were mainly concentrated on the central urban districts, with hotspots mainly found around Century Park, Changfeng Park, Zhongshan Park, and parks with good natural conditions (e.g., Houtan Park, Expo Park). In other districts, hotspots were distributed in multiple clusters, especially in Dripping Lake, Chongming Dongtan Wetland, Chenshan Botanical Garden, and other areas with favorable ecological conditions and sound birding resources (Fig.3). At night, the amount of observation sites decreased significantly, with less concentration, mainly clustered around the city center and Dripping Lake.

The spatial distribution statistics of grid cells with birding records in the study area (Fig.4) showed that there were more birding records in the dark interval throughout the day, whereas the nighttime birding records were mainly found in the high brightness interval. Although there is a bias, citizen science data are still robust considering that there were sufficient samples across all intervals and the smallest intervals of data, i.e., dark and extreme brightness intervals, were of more than 100 grid cells.

3.2 Relationship Between the Amount of Observed Birds and Illumination Irradiance

The study statistically analyzed the observed amounts of 10 target bird species in single observations across the illumination irradiance intervals (Fig.5). The minor error bars reflected a sound robustness and reliability of the results. The results showed that the impacts of illumination irradiance on different bird species vary and can be summarized into three distribution patterns.

1) Decreasing distribution: the amounts of observed birds of Egretta garzetta and Pica pica were highest in the dark interval and tended to decrease as illumination irradiance increases, implying that these species may be more sensitive to nighttime light intensity.

2) Multimodal distribution: the number of observations, in addition to being higher in the dark interval, showed clustering in other irradiance intervals, forming bimodal or trimodal distributions, such as Passer montanus, Pycnonotus sinensis, Acridotheres cristatellus, Nycticorax nycticorax, and Turdus mandarinus. Specially, Passer montanus and Nycticorax nycticorax witnessed peaks in the dark and extreme brightness intervals, Turdus mandarinus saw peaks in the dark and high brightness intervals, while Pycnonotus sinensis and Acridotheres cristatellus formed peaks in the dark, medium brightness, and extreme brightness intervals. A possible explanation is that urbanization may have led to the concentration of bird populations^[48], and these bird species are more tolerant to urban ALAN environments. The light pollution in cities may have altered the nocturnal behaviors of these bird species, which partly explains the rapid growth of Nycticorax nycticorax populations along the Huangpu River and Suzhou Creek in Shanghai in recent years^[49].

3) Balanced distribution: the numbers of observations of species of Spilopelia chinensis, Spodiopsar cineraceus, and Sinosuthora webbiana were roughly even or with minor fluctuation between irradiance intervals. This suggests that these birds may have a strong adaptability, enabling them to survive in a variety of urban ALAN environments. Spilopelia chinensis and Spodiopsar cineraceus saw a more obviously even distribution across the illumination irradiance intervals, without significant differences between the brightest and darkest intervals; Sinosuthora webbiana showed a similarly balanced distribution, with a slight concentration in the medium and high brightness intervals.

Additionally, among the three distribution patterns, most species were notably distributed in the dark interval, i.e., 0 ~ 0.15 nW/(cm²·sr), indicating that the bird species may prefer to inhabit and be active in areas with lower nighttime light intensity.

3.3 Correlation Analysis Between the Amount of Observed Birds and Illumination Irradiance

To further examine the impact degrees of ALAN on the target bird species, a correlation analysis between the amount of observed birds and illumination irradiance was conducted. The results verified that there was a significant negative correlation between the illumination irradiance and the amount of observed birds of Egretta garzetta (β = −0.143, p < 0.05) and Pica pica (β = −0.202, p < 0.05) in the decreasing distribution pattern, whereas the numbers of the species in the multimodal or balanced distribution patterns were not significantly and linearly correlated with illumination irradiance (Tab.3). In addition to the possible impact of urbanization on bird distribution, another reason could be the bias in citizen science data, as most observation sites are concentrated in urban areas with higher illumination irradiance^[50].

4 Summary and Outlook

4.1 Conclusions and Discussion

The study focuses on the impacts of nighttime light pollution in Shanghai, using ALAN remote sensing data and citizen science data (Shanghai's birding records from China Bird Report) and selecting 10 common bird species, to examine how bird species distribution was impacted by varied illumination intervals at night. It found that there were disparities in the impact of ALAN radiance on different bird species, and the amounts of birds showed three patterns of distributions—decreasing, multimodal, and balanced. The following main findings were identified.

1) The average observed amount of urban bird species was not even in different illumination irradiance intervals. Most urban birds studied in this research might prefer darker environments—in the irradiance interval of 0 ~ 0.15 nW/(cm²·sr)—while species such as Passer montanus and Nycticorax nycticorax showed large distributions on irradiance intervals of 75 nW/(cm²·sr) and above. In addition, species such as Spilopelia chinensis were less impacted by the nighttime light intensity and were more evenly distributed. This may be because ALAN provides a suitable urban foraging environment for some bird species at night, while areas with higher illumination irradiance are more convenient for bird observation.

2) ALAN may reduce bird activities of some species. The average observed amounts of Egretta garzetta and Pica pica showed significant negative correlations with illumination irradiance, while the rest of the target bird species showing multimodal or balanced distribution across the illumination irradiance intervals. This may imply that these bird species are better adapted to urban environments^{[51] [52]} and are not averse to being in brighter areas at night.

From the perspective of promoting bird-friendly urban environments, city management should pay attention to reduce the illumination irradiance in urban parks, nature reserves, etc. where birds congregate, so as to balance the needs of human recreational activities and biodiversity conservation.

4.2 Outlook and Application Prospects

Reducing light pollution, coordinating the human–bird harmony in cities, and building dark-night friendly environment all respond to the requirements for the construction of ecologically livable and beautiful cities^[53]. From 2000 to 2020, ecological restoration measures have led to the growth of vegetation coverage in historical downtowns in the Yangtze River Delta region^[54], providing more habitats for birds in the city. This study has shown that the general lighting level in Shanghai is relatively intensive, and birds are mainly concentrated in green spaces like urban parks and ecological reserves, where extra attention should be paid to reducing nighttime lighting intensity and limiting citizens' recreational activities at night. In addition to restrictions on lighting and activity management of urban parks, there is also a need to reduce lighting intensity in urban residential areas, where a large number of wild lives are largely affected by ALAN. Minimizing the intensity of artificial lighting can promote the balance of urban ecosystems.

This study innovatively adopted citizen science data as the source of bird distribution information. Compared with the traditional grid analysis, such data may have "systematic biases" in spatial and temporal distribution^[55]; at the spatial level, the data mostly represented the areas with high population density or convenient transportation at the temporal level, it shows a pattern of more observation activities on weekends than on weekdays, and more during the day than at night—although birding records in low-illumination environments during late-night hours are relatively scarce, the focus of this study on ALAN hours ensures a sustainable amount of data. Notably, a nighttime bird sound collection project initiated by the Kunming Bird Research Institution (the operation team of China Bird Report) in May 2024 could complement the birding data in extremely dark environments^③. To further enhance the reliability of citizen science data, future studies may explore strategies such as implementing the minimum magnitude testing and constructing distribution models to enhance data robustness^{[33] [36]}.

③ Information source: official WeChat Account of Kunming Vermilion Bird Research Institute.

This research also sees limitations. First, the remote sensing data may deviate from actual ground-level lighting conditions due to factors such as vegetation shading, though remote sensing data offer advantages in ecological validity and breadth, providing a broader perspective on bird distributions, compared with fine-grained laboratory studies. Second, the number of single bird species was used as the main variable in this study; future studies can incorporate more robust indicators such as biodiversity metrics to improve credibility. In addition, this research only preliminarily discusses the impacts of ALAN on the amount of observed birds; other environmental factors affecting bird activities, such as land use types and vegetation patterns, can be considered in future studies.

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