ArticlePloS one2015
Lamp-lit bridges as dual light-traps for the night-swarming mayfly, Ephoron virgo: interaction of polarized and unpolarized light pollution.
Article in PloS one, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed.
- Citizen science reveals temporally structured insect attraction and mitigation efficacy under artificial light at night.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Taxonomic validation of Ephoron yunnanensis Zhou, 2002 (nomen nudum) (Ephemeroptera, Polymitarcyidae).ZooKeys · 2026Article
- Social dominance influences individual susceptibility to an evolutionary trap in mosquitofish.Ecological applications : a publication of the Ecological Society of America · 2025Article
- Light pollution of freshwater ecosystems: principles, ecological impacts and remedies.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Review
- Anthropogenic changes to the nighttime environment.Bioscience · 2023Article
- Introduction of artificial light at night increases the abundance of predators, scavengers, and parasites in arthropod communities.iScience · 2023Article
- X,Y, and Z: A bird's eye view on light pollution.Ecology and evolution · 2022Article
- Spectral sensitivity transition in the compound eyes of a twilight-swarming mayfly and its visual ecological implications.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Light pollution: a landscape-scale issue requiring cross-realm consideration.UCL open. Environment · 2022Review
- An Impact Analysis of Artificial Light at Night (ALAN) on Bats. A Case Study of the Historic Monument and Natura 2000 Wisłoujście Fortress in Gdansk, Poland.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Urban warming and artificial light alter dormancy in the flesh fly.Royal Society open science · 2021Article
- The Genome of the Margined White Butterfly (Pieris macdunnoughii): Sex Chromosome Insights and the Power of Polishing with PoolSeq Data.Genome biology and evolution · 2021Article
- Urban Lighting Research Transdisciplinary Framework-A Collaborative Process with Lighting Professionals.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2021Article
- Color polarization vision mediates the strength of an evolutionary trap.Evolutionary applications · 2019Article
- The impact of artificial light at night on nocturnal insects: A review and synthesis.Ecology and evolution · 2018Review
- Review
- Insect Responses to Linearly Polarized Reflections: Orphan Behaviors Without Neural Circuits.Frontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2018Review
- Method to improve the survival of night-swarming mayflies near bridges in areas of distracting light pollution.Royal Society open science · 2017Article
- NightLife: A cheap, robust, LED based light trap for collecting aquatic insects in remote areas.Biodiversity data journal · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Ecological photopollution created by artificial night lighting can alter animal behavior and lead to population declines and biodiversity loss. Polarized light pollution is a second type of photopollution that triggers water-seeking insects to ovisposit on smooth and dark man-made objects, because they simulate the polarization signatures of natural water bodies. We document a case study of the interaction of these two forms of photopollution by conducting observations and experiments near a lamp-lit bridge over the river Danube that attracts mass swarms of the mayfly Ephoron virgo away from the river to oviposit on the asphalt road of the bridge. Millions of mayflies swarmed near bridge-lights for two weeks. We found these swarms to be composed of 99% adult females performing their upstream compensatory flight and were attracted upward toward unpolarized bridge-lamp light, and away from the horizontally polarized light trail of the river. Imaging polarimetry confirmed that the asphalt surface of the bridge was strongly and horizontally polarized, providing a supernormal ovipositional cue to Ephoron virgo, while other parts of the bridge were poor polarizers of lamplight. Collectively, we confirm that Ephoron virgo is independently attracted to both unpolarized and polarized light sources, that both types of photopollution are being produced at the bridge, and that spatial patterns of swarming and oviposition are consistent with evolved behaviors being triggered maladaptively by these two types of light pollution. We suggest solutions to bridge and lighting design that should prevent or mitigate the impacts of such scenarios in the future. The detrimental impacts of such scenarios may extend beyond Ephoron virgo.
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