Robinson, JM;
Cameron, R;
Parker, B;
(2021)
The Effects of Anthropogenic Sound and Artificial Light Exposure on Microbiomes: Ecological and Public Health Implications.
Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution
, 9
, Article 662588. 10.3389/fevo.2021.662588.
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Abstract
Globally, anthropogenic sound and artificial light pollution have increased to alarming levels. Evidence suggests that these can disrupt critical processes that impact ecosystems and human health. However, limited focus has been given to the potential effects of sound and artificial light pollution on microbiomes. Microbial communities are the foundations of our ecosystems. They are essential for human health and provide myriad ecosystem services. Therefore, disruption to microbiomes by anthropogenic sound and artificial light could have important ecological and human health implications. In this mini-review, we provide a critical appraisal of available scientific literature on the effects of anthropogenic sound and light exposure on microorganisms and discuss the potential ecological and human health implications. Our mini-review shows that a limited number of studies have been carried out to investigate the effects of anthropogenic sound and light pollution on microbiomes. However, based on these studies, it is evident that anthropogenic sound and light pollution have the potential to significantly influence ecosystems and human health via microbial interactions. Many of the studies suffered from modest sample sizes, suboptimal experiments designs, and some of the bioinformatics approaches used are now outdated. These factors should be improved in future studies. This is an emerging and severely underexplored area of research that could have important implications for global ecosystems and public health. Finally, we also propose the photo-sonic restoration hypothesis: does restoring natural levels of light and sound help to restore microbiomes and ecosystem stability?
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | The Effects of Anthropogenic Sound and Artificial Light Exposure on Microbiomes: Ecological and Public Health Implications |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.3389/fevo.2021.662588 |
| Publisher version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2021.662588 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Copyright © 2021 Robinson, Cameron and Parker. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
| Keywords: | sound pollution, artificial light, light pollution, restoration, microbiome |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Engineering Science > Dept of Biochemical Engineering |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10129989 |
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