Julie Day

Julie Day, BSc (Hons), MSc

Department: Biosciences
Discipline: Biosciences
Research Centre/Unit: Mammalian Biology

Project Summary

Title: The ecological impacts of artificial night lighting on biodiversity. Artificial night lighting is globally on the increase, currently consuming around 1/5th of all electricity use. Despite artificial night lighting's wide spread and high use, the ecological impacts have been largely under explored. Many species are nocturnal or exhibit nocturnal tenancies so altering the night time environment though artificial lighting is likely to have negative impacts.

I'm currently studying the effects of light pollution on bats. Most bat species are nocturnal so sensitive to artificial night lighting and protected across the UK and EU. The areas I will be exploring include impacts on abundance, activity, survival, and also comparisons between 'light-shy' and 'light-attracted' species of bats.

Supervisory Team

Primary Supervisor: Dr Fiona Mathews

Secondary Supervisor: Professor Kevin Gaston

​External Supervisor: Dr Henry Schofield

Wider Research Interests

  • Applied Ecology
  • Urban Ecology
  • Conservation

Authored Publications/Reports

Hudson, L.N., Newbold, T., Contu, S., Hill, S.L.L., Lysenko, I., De Palma, A., Phillips, H.R.P., Senior, R.A., Bedford, F., Bennett, D., Booth, H., Choimes, S., Laginha Correia Pinto, D., Day, J., Echeverría-Londoño, S., Garon, M., Harrison, M.L.K., Ingram, D.I., Jung, M., Kemp, V., Kirkpatrick, L., Martin, C., Pan, Y., Robinson, A., White, H., [hundreds of data contributors], Collen, B., Ewers, R.M., Mace, G.M., Purves, D.W., Scharlemann, J.P.W. & Purvis, A. (2014) The PREDICTS database: a global database of how local terrestrial biodiversity responds to human impacts, Ecology and Evolution, 4 (24), 4701–4735

Newbold, T., Hudson, L. N., Philips, H. R. P., Hill, S. L. L., Contu, S., Lysenko, I., Blandon, A., Butchart, S. H. M., Booth, H. L., Day, J., De Palma, A., Harrison, L. K., Kirkpatrick, L., Pynegar, E., Robinson, A., Simpson, J., Mace, G. M., Scharlemann, J. P. W., Purvis, A. (2014) A global response of tropical and sub-tropical forest biodiversity to anthropogenic pressures., Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 281(1792)

Mathews, F., Roche, N., Aughney, T., Jones, N., Day, J., Baker, J. & Langton, S. (2015) Barriers and benefits: implications of artificial night-lighting for the distribution of common bats in Britain and Ireland, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences, 370 (1667), 20140124

Day, J., Baker, J. Schofield, H., Mathews, F. & Gaston, K. J. (2015) Part-night lighting: implications for bat conservation, Animal Conservation

Newbold, T., Hudson, L. H, Hill, S. L. L., Contu, S., Lysenko, I., Senior, R. A., Börger, L., Bennett, D. J. Choimes, A., Collen, B., Day, J., De Palma, A., Díaz, S., Echeverria-Londoño, S., Edgar, M. J., Feldman, A., Garon, M., Harrison, M. L. K., Alhusseini, T., Ingram, D. J., Itescu, Y., Kattge, J., Kemp, V., Kirkpatrick, L., Kleyer, M., Correia, D. L. P., Martin, C. D., Meiri, S., Novosolov, M., Pan, Y., Phillips, H. R. P., Purves, D. W., Robinson, A., Simpson, J., Tuck, S. L., Weiher, E., White, H. J., Ewers, R. M., Mace, G. M., Scharlemann, J. P. W. & Purvis A. (2015) Global effects of land use on local terrestrial biodiversity, Nature, 520 (7545), 45-50