If this result holds up, it’s potentially big: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-025-02481-0

In short, it implies that #LightPollution is decreasing the efficiency with which #plants remove carbon from the atmosphere. It concludes that artificial light at night increases “ #ecosystem respiration” (plants, microbes, and animals releasing carbon dioxide through their activity and growth), but there is no corresponding increase in #photosynthesis.

The result is that plants exposed to ALAN emit more #carbon than they absorb from the #atmosphere. The authors write: “Our findings show that ALAN disrupts the fundamental energetic constraints on ecosystem metabolism, warranting the inclusion of light pollution in global change and carbon–climate feedback assessments.”

#ALAN

"The surge in megasatellite constellations is creating problems beyond amplifying the Earth-circling space debris, according to new research. Reentering spacecraft and rocket stages may also be damaging Earth’s atmosphere. 'Space waste,' spacecraft reentering the atmosphere, injects a considerable amount of its matter into the mesosphere and lower #thermosphere — enough to potentially weaken the Earth’s #ozone layer."

https://spacenews.com/uncontrolled-experiment-study-links-harmful-atmospheric-metals-to-spacecraft-reentry/

#SpaceEnvironment #Space #Atmosphere

If this result holds up, it’s potentially big: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-025-02481-0

In short, it implies that #LightPollution is decreasing the efficiency with which #plants remove carbon from the atmosphere. It concludes that artificial light at night increases “ #ecosystem respiration” (plants, microbes, and animals releasing carbon dioxide through their activity and growth), but there is no corresponding increase in #photosynthesis.

The result is that plants exposed to ALAN emit more #carbon than they absorb from the #atmosphere. The authors write: “Our findings show that ALAN disrupts the fundamental energetic constraints on ecosystem metabolism, warranting the inclusion of light pollution in global change and carbon–climate feedback assessments.”

#ALAN

"The surge in megasatellite constellations is creating problems beyond amplifying the Earth-circling space debris, according to new research. Reentering spacecraft and rocket stages may also be damaging Earth’s atmosphere. 'Space waste,' spacecraft reentering the atmosphere, injects a considerable amount of its matter into the mesosphere and lower #thermosphere — enough to potentially weaken the Earth’s #ozone layer."

https://spacenews.com/uncontrolled-experiment-study-links-harmful-atmospheric-metals-to-spacecraft-reentry/

#SpaceEnvironment #Space #Atmosphere