ReviewBiology letters2022
Nocturnal lighting in animal research should be replicable and reflect relevant ecological conditions.
Review in Biology letters, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Artificial Light at Night Consistently Impacts Avian Physiology and Behaviour: A Meta-Analysis.Ecology letters · 2026Pooled it
- A flashing light may not be that flashy: A systematic review on critical fusion frequencies.PloS one · 2022Pooled it
- Beyond Lux: methods for species and photoreceptor-specific quantification of ambient light for mammals.BMC biology · 2024Article
- How cage effects can hurt statistical analyses of completely randomized designs.Laboratory animals · 2024Article
- Experimental playback of urban noise does not affect cognitive performance in captive Australian magpies.Biology open · 2024Article
- Relative importance of intensity and spectrum of artificial light at night in disrupting behavior of a nocturnal rodent.The Journal of experimental biology · 2024Article
- Insect communities under skyglow: diffuse night-time illuminance induces spatio-temporal shifts in movement and predation.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Article
- A framework for untangling the consequences of artificial light at night on species interactions.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Review
- A light-exploiting insectivorous bat shows no melatonin disruption under lights with different spectra.Royal Society open science · 2023Article
- Impacts of artificial light at night in marine ecosystems-A review.Global change biology · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In nature, light is a key driver of animal behaviour and physiology. When studying captive or laboratory animals, researchers usually expose animals to a period of darkness, to mimic night. However, 'darkness' is often poorly quantified and its importance is generally underappreciated in animal research. Even small differences in nocturnal light conditions can influence biology. When light levels during the dark phase are not reported accurately, experiments can be impossible to replicate and compare. Furthermore, when nocturnal light levels are unrealistically dark or bright, the research is less ecologically relevant. Such issues are exacerbated by huge differences in the sensitivity of different light meters, which are not always described in study methods. We argue that nocturnal light levels need to be reported clearly and precisely, particularly in studies of animals housed indoors (e.g. '<0.03 lux' rather than '0 lux' or 'dark'), and that these light levels should reflect conditions that the animal would experience in a natural context.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.