Study: As the Arctic warms, light pollution may pose a new threat to marine life

National Geographic discusses how, as the Arctic warms, light pollution may pose a new threat to marine life. Thanks to climate change, more humans are able to pass through the Arctic, and they’re making the region’s once black polar night brighter.

THE ARCTIC CIRCLE in the middle of winter is so dark it’s hard to see. Because of the way the top of the Earth tilts away from the sun, the star never appears to rise above the horizon, and dark skies drench the Arctic in what’s known as polar night.

“It kind of feels like you’re working the night shift all the time,” says Finlo Cottier, an oceanographer at the Scottish Association for Marine Science.

What it all means for marine life is yet unclear, but new research published today in the journal Nature Communications Biology indicates that light pollution could significantly alter how they live even as scientists are still trying to understand their full life cycles.

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