From Science News for Students
April 16, 2018
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — In many places, a moonless night sky is no longer inky black. Artificial lighting can give the night a persistent glow. This so-called light pollution can affect animals. And new data now suggest those effects might trickle through ecosystems.
Even moderate light pollution, a new study finds, can roughly double how long a house sparrow infected with West Nile virus remains at high risk of spreading disease. If bitten by a mosquito, that virus can now spread to other animals, including people.
In the United States, house sparrows are about as widespread as is artificial lighting. So they made a useful test species in a new first-of-its-kind study, says Meredith Kernbach. Her team used these birds to test whether light at night might affect the spread of West Nile disease. Kernbach’s work combines ecology with the study of immune systems. She works at the University of South Florida in Tampa.