New ZLI Grants Available
ZLI PhotoSciences Research Grants Focus on Light and Life, This is Why:
The Zoological Lighting Institute (ZLI) now offers annual grant opportunities for early-career researchers focused on studying the importance of light conditions on organisms. These grants and others like them are necessary, as natural light is arguably the most important environmental factor for animals and ecosystems. Please apply today, or consider financially supporting ZLI in its mission to support science through the arts for animal welfare and wildlife conservation. Applications are accepted by providing information through <<zoolighting.org >>. The application deadline for this year's cycle is 1 May 2019.
Animals evolved under specific lighting conditions and their behavior, physiology, and ecology are inexorably tied to proper and naturally dynamic levels of light. Understanding light effects on biology could not be more important as: 1) humans are currently changing the light environments in which animals exist drastically; and 2) zoos, aquariums and other animal rescue or holding institutions have little reliable information on how to provide proper lighting for their animals’ well-being. ZLI's PhotoSciences Research Grants enable ZLI to fill the gap in this gross negligence, directly contributing to animal welfare and wildlife conservation as such research is acted upon.
The two biggest human contributors altering natural light environments are: 1) human lighting at night (i.e. light pollution); and 2) deforestation / habitat loss which is typified by certain building materials that reflect or modify natural light in harmful ways. Current science clearly indicates vast problems caused by these challenges, though gaps remain in the literature regarding specific mechanisms at play. ZLI aims to fill in these gaps across three disciplines of biology: physiology, sensory ecology, and macro-ecology. Grants are available in each division, as well as as dedicated grant focusing on diversity and inclusion meant to improve not only science itself, but to enhance the reasons for pursuing it in the first place.
It is known that daily changes in light levels drive animal physiology. Physiology, the structure of the body, can be described either in terms of chemistry or physics. Contemporary studies in these fields describe how natural light relates to hormones through sophisticated organic processes, or how organic cells themselves utilize light transmission internally, to govern processes like wound repair and immunity. These two arenas, which infuse western and eastern medicine alike, are fundamentally important to the health, functioning and well being of animals and of course, to that of the human animal too.
Of course, how animals see is crucial as well. Most animals rely on vision to find food and mates, as well as to evade danger (predators and environmental threats). We might think initially that 'more light is better', as we are often taught. Nothing could be further from the truth. Natural light is not too different from temperature in this regard, having appropriate ranges and qualities within which certain animals are adapted to function better than others at any one time or location. In fact, light is so important that estimates show that about 10% of an animal’s energy is solely dedicated to visual processes.
Sensory ecology investigates how environmental conditions (e.g. lighting, vegetation, etc.) affect the ability of organisms to use their senses (e.g. vision and hearing). As animals have evolved visual abilities under specific light conditions and specific light cycles (daily, seasonal, and lunar), we must understand how artificial light conditions alter vision and the related biological processes. Thus, ZLI now funds three proposals focused on sensory ecology in these three topics: animal eyes; animal coloration; and how vision interacts with other senses (e.g. hearing and smelling).
Because of artificial night lighting animals, just like humans, no longer experience natural lighting conditions. Normally, these light conditions vary greatly across large landscapes due to geological (e.g. mountains) and biological features (e.g. forests and plains). Artificial conditions, from our cities, architecture and highways, change a crucial environmental quality that impacts the ability of the land and sea to support life.
ZLI will fund two proposals investigating the biological effects of large-scale changes in lighting both in time (e.g. how animals might occupy the same space but in different times, making it effectively more able to sustain diverse populations) as well as across space (e.g. from urban centers to rural areas or in the concentration of certain animals around highway or porch lights).
From understanding the effects of natural and unnatural light on animal physiology, sensory ecology, and macro-ecology, ZLI will be able to better inform zoos, aquariums, conservation entities, and public policy on how to best mitigate the effects of one of the greatest human disturbances of the 21st century – alteration of light on Earth.