The Urban Ecology takes a night field trip
Night walking and pausing to understand the impact of artificial light at night (ALAN). How far must you walk away from a streetlight before you can no longer read the page of text in front of you?
Thirty percent of invertebrates are nocturnal, and 60% of invertebrates, and yet most of our ecological research is confined to daylight hours.
The 2023 Urban Ecology class took a night field trip recently and discussed this significant gap in ecology. Excessive noise, artificial light at night and urban night warming all plays a role in altering niche partitioning, assembly rules, and functionality.
After an evening seminar and group activities, we took a walk in the dark on the lower slopes of Table Mountain and applied our thinking to what this all means for the local ecology of our city.
Group of students design an imaginary interdisciplinary team
A group of students design an imaginary interdisciplinary team to tackle some of the pressing questions in night ecology with a view to improving city planning to allow for greater cohabitation with nature and the conservation of functioning ecological systems.
Night Walking
Night walking and pausing to understand the impact of artificial light at night (ALAN). How far must you walk away from a streetlight before you can no longer read the page of text in front of you?
Use of powerful flashlights for exploration
We used powerful flashlights to explore the trees for roosting birds and animals.
Pondering night ecologies
Dark city, light city, noisy city, quiet city, your city, my city. Pondering night ecologies with the EGS postgraduate Urban Ecology class of 2023.
