But in our recentstudy, we uncovered how artificial light is disrupting these nightly migrations.
Electric lighting is transforming our world.
Around 80% of the global population now lives in places where night skies arepolluted with artificial light.
A third of humanity can no longer see the Milky Way the galaxy our solar system belongs to.
But the light at night has deeper effects.
Studies have shown that nocturnal animals modify their behavior even with slight changes in night time light levels.
Dung beetles become disoriented when navigating landscapes if light pollutionprevents them from seeing the stars.
Light can also change how species interact with each other.
Insects such as moths are more vulnerable tobeing eaten by batswhen light reduces how effective they are atevading predators.
Clownfish exposed to light pollution fail to reproduce properly, as they need darknessfor their eggs to hatch.
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But many marine and coastal organisms are highly sensitive to low light.
Skyglow could be changing the way they perceive the night sky, and ultimately affecting their lives.
They bury in the sand during the day and emerge to feed on rotting seaweed at night.
They play an important role in their ecosystem by breaking down and recycling nutrients from stranded algae.
If you turn over washed-up seaweed on an evening beach walk, you should have no trouble finding them.
Under our artificial skyglow, their movement was much more random.
Artificial skyglow changes the way sandhoppers use the moon to navigate.
And theres evidence that the Earth at night is getting brighter.
From 2012 to 2016, scientists found that Earths artificially lit outdoor areasincreased by 2.2% each year.
