Balancing urban nighttime development with biodiversity conservation requires a clear understanding of how artificial light at night (ALAN) affects wildlife over time. However, long-term, fine-scale quantitative assessments remain scarce. Here, we analyzed bird diversity and ALAN in Shanghai from 2000 to 2024 at a 1 km resolution by integrating bird observation records with satellite-derived nighttime light data. We quantified the interaction between bird diversity and ALAN using a coupling coordination degree model (CCDM) and identified key drivers with GeoDetector. Our results show that bird diversity increased in 16% of the study area, though spatially fragmented, while ALAN intensified and expanded outward from the urban core, affecting 4.6% of the area. Areas with moderate or higher coordination (CCD > 0.5) nearly doubled, primarily in urban–suburban transition zones. Urban land use, road density, and vegetation cover (NDVI) were the dominant drivers, with NDVI-related interactions significantly enhancing explanatory power. These findings provide the first long-term, spatially explicit assessment of ALAN–bird diversity interactions in Shanghai, offering quantitative guidance for zoning-based lighting management, green space planning, and biodiversity-friendly urban development.
Guo et al. (Tue,) studied this question.