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Bright lights, big city: an experimental assessment of short-term behavioral and performance effects of artificial light at night on Anolis lizards

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Abstract

With urbanization expanding into natural areas, it is increasingly important to understand how species subject to human-induced habitat alteration respond to novel opportunities and stressors. A pervasive consequence of urbanization is artificial light at night (ALAN), which previous studies have found introduces both costs and benefits for vertebrates. This understanding, however, primarily reflects findings from laboratory-controlled experiments or comparisons of wild populations in areas with long-standing differences in ALAN regimes. Here, we investigated the short-term costs and benefits for Anolis lizards during the period of initial exposure to ALAN using realistic light levels for urban areas (mean ± SD = 87.9 ± 36.7 lx at a distance of 3 m). As compared to controls, we hypothesized that adding ALAN would result in behavioral and physiological changes over the short term for brown anoles and their arthropod prey. In contrast to predictions, ALAN did not increase arthropod abundance or extend anole activity into the night. Structural habitat and sleep site use changed little in response to ALAN, which exposed about one-third of sleeping anoles in ALAN plots to light at night due to our manipulation. However, this direct light exposure resulted in lizards being more easily roused from sleep compared to lizards sleeping in the dark in control plots or in shadows in ALAN plots. The apparent inability of some anoles to adjust their sleep sites to avoid ALAN exposure may have contributed to their increased responsiveness at night and decreased locomotor endurance in the day. Our study suggests brown anoles can experience higher short-term costs than benefits during initial exposure to ALAN.

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Acknowledgments

This study was conducted at Montgomery Botanical Center and we thank Patrick Griffith for permission to collect lizards on plants at MBC. We thank Carl Lewis of Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, and Ken Feeley and James Stroud of Florida International University for logistical support. We are grateful for the assistance of Shelby Rinehart and Malcom Moniz with fieldwork. Eily Sullivan assisted with insect identification and data collection. Haley Moniz was a Coastal Fellow at URI while conducting this research. Oriol Lapiedra was supported by a Beatriu de Pinós postdoctoral fellowship 2014 BP-A 00116 from the AGAUR.

Funding

This work was supported by funds from the University of Rhode Island and a grant from the National Geographic Society.

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Author notes

  1. Haley A. Moniz

    Present address: Department of Biology, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, 89557, USA

  2. Oriol Lapiedra

    Present address: Center for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications, Barcelona, Spain

  3. Christopher J. Thawley

    Present address: Department of Biology, Neumann University, Aston, PA, 19014, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI, 02881, USA

    Jason J. Kolbe, Haley A. Moniz, Oriol Lapiedra & Christopher J. Thawley

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  1. Jason J. Kolbe
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Contributions

JJK and HAM conceived of this study and conducted the field work; all authors contributed to data analysis and interpretation; JJK wrote the first draft of the manuscript; all authors contributed to manuscript revisions and approved the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Jason J. Kolbe.

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The University of Rhode Island Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee approved protocols for use of live animals in this study (AN11–09-005).

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Kolbe, J.J., Moniz, H.A., Lapiedra, O. et al. Bright lights, big city: an experimental assessment of short-term behavioral and performance effects of artificial light at night on Anolis lizards. Urban Ecosyst 24, 1035–1045 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-021-01098-3

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