Are Street Lights Keeping Plants Awake at Night?

Plants, like humans, have a day and night cycle. As you may have noticed, many of them close at night, It opens with the sunrise.

So the light created by the street lights, keeping plants awake What causes this? We artificially illuminate every part of the cities.

We light the streets so that they are bright even at night.

In our urbanized and semi-urbanized cities, we light our streets artificially. We light monuments, parks, billboards, shop windows, We add lighting wherever we can think of.

Yes, it is beneficial for humans. But what about plants? Plants that have a significant population of life but that we often do not notice influenced by these lights Could sleep cycles be disrupted?

Since plants have evolved to respond to light, these lights disrupt their natural balance.

Just like humans and animals, plants also live according to day and night cycles. Artificial lights are able to perform their functions through natural light and dark cycles called photoperiods. breaks their cycle.

In fact, it affects their natural activities so much that biological processes in the ecosystem Artificial lights disrupt the circadian clock of plants (the molecular metronome that guides organisms throughout the day and night, regulating processes from the preparation of photosynthesis at dawn to the regulation of flowering time).

Therefore, the normal functioning circadian clocks such as flowering time, pollination, DNA repair and photosynthesis are disrupted. Therefore, yes, the artificial lighting we install all over the cities, It prevents the plants’ sleep cycle and natural functions from working properly.

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