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“The most frustrating part was during the construction
(of the neighboring Romano Hall), because of the
electrical supply to the room. The lights were going on
and off. Because you want to limit your contact with
the salamanders, we would only be in two days a week
to water and feed. So you’d come in and everything
would be off, and you’d be like, oh no, how long have
the lights been off? Has it been two days, two hours?
If it’s a one month experiment, the whole thing has to
start over,” Alsheimer says, laughing.
”TwENTY, THIRTY YEARS”
These limitations notwithstanding, Wise says that
the next stage of this research will be looking at digit
regeneration – toes, to be exact – as well as developmental
stages in salamanders and how each is affected
by various light levels.
She and Buchanan will also be working with Mc-
Carthy on studying the behavior of aquatic snails.
Because these snails live all over North America and
can be raised from egg to adult in a small cup, Mc-
Carthy says, they are very well adapted to the kinds of
experiments being done at UC, which involve relatively
confined spaces.
“We can do all kinds of different things in terms of
looking at their growth rates, how that differs between
the different light exposures, when they mature, when
they lay eggs, how many eggs they’re laying, what
kinds of packets – really big egg packets with lots of
eggs, or lots of little packets – all of those different
variables,” he says.
While McCarthy, a behavioral ecologist, is primarily
interested in studying mating strategies and predatorprey
interactions among invertebrates, a good deal of
the light pollution work on snails has concentrated on
development and reproduction. Results thus far have
shown wide variations in estrogen and testosterone
levels associated with different light levels as well as
very different reproduction and growth rates.
“Whether that’s tied to melatonin or not is an open
question,” says McCarthy. “Are the hormones different
because they’re reproducing differently, or are they reproducing
differently because the hormones are different?
So we need to figure out that aspect.” He shrugs,
then adds dryly, “And that could take 20, 30 years.”
Wise laughs at McCarthy’s grimly realistic comment.
“That’s the whole thing,” she says. “You do one
experiment like this and you get all these different
questions that lead you into 20 years worth of work.
That’s the way it goes.”
Tradition. Opportunity. Transformation.®
A COLLABORATIVE INSTITUTE
Wise’s vision, shared by her colleagues, to move
the research process forward is one of a light pollution
institute housed at Utica College. “We have more
people working on light pollution at this school than
any other school,” she says. “In fact we probably have
more people working on behavior than many, many
other schools many times our size. We have a lot of
behavioral ecologists here, so it makes for interesting
collaborations.”
One such collaboration being discussed is what Wise
describes as a “cattle tank” study.
“You take these cattle tanks and you can set up a
mesocosm - a sort of mini pond,” she explains. “We
would actually monitor these at different light levels,
and that would involve Tom with the invertebrates
and (Professor) Dave Moore to look at the algal and
plankton growth. We would have a predator species,
like a newt, and prey species like tadpoles or some
invertebrates. Terri would look at the melatonin levels
in these different organisms at the end of this experiment.
So we could actually involve a huge number of
faculty and of course students on top of that – a big,
collaborative kind of project.”
Whatever shape future research projects may take,
faculty and students at UC will continue to contribute
to the light pollution knowledge base in the
years ahead. Their data are discussed at national and
international conferences, published in major scientific
journals, and have even found their way into popular
publications such as Germany’s Der Spiegel.
Greater public awareness of the dangers of light
pollution can only be a good thing, according to
Buchanan. From the standpoint of health, energy conservation,
quality of life, and even crime prevention,
night time lighting can result in significant waste and
substantial harm.
When asked what individuals can do to protect
themselves, Buchanan shares a few simple steps.
“Sleep with the lights off. Don’t let your kids sleep
with night lights. If you have a green L.E.D. clock
radio, go out and get a red one, or throw a sock or a
towel over it. Don’t sleep with the TV on. If you’ve got
a bright light outside, use dark shades,” he says.
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Learn more about light pollution at
www.darksky.org
pioneer 29 fall 2009