“When Thomas Alva Edison invented Light bulb in the late 19th century, he couldn’t predict that the spread of artificial light at night would dramatically increase worldwide and make the night sky hundreds of times brighter in many parts of the world.”, says Tao Yile from Peking University in his report of his UAS Student Research Stay at Freie Universität Berlin.

In autumn 2016 Yile was granted the opportunity to be involved in a project about the influence of light pollution on lake ecosystems, supervised by Dr. Franz Hölker who is also teaching at Freie Universität Berlin. In a huge enclosure within the German Stechlin Lake, Dr. Hölker and his team are researching how the permanent influence of light from cities – the so called “Sky Glow” – is causing disturbance within waters food chains. So far it seems as if the presence of “Sky Glow” fosters algal growth which is in turn harming for waters biodiversity.

For UAS Student Research Fellow Tao Yile this was not only a great experience to collaborate and exchange ideas with researchers but he was also “thrilled to see [himself] on TV” when the TV channel “Das Erste” broadcasted a report on the research project he participated in.

The TV report can be found within the online media library from “Das Erste”.

More impressions from Yile Tao’s Junior Research Stay can be found within his complete report.

If you are interested in participating in a research project within the framework of the University Alliance for Sustainability yourself, check out our website for more information.