Yes, actually, and they 100% can be! This 2026 study, for example, focuses on Artificial Light at Night (ALAN) affecting White Dogwood and Common Beech trees. The authors found that ALAN significantly affects the trees’ light dependent phase of photosynthesis. The trees responded differently physicall, but both were negative. They also demonstrated that the effects are “dose” specific, or dependent on how much light exposure has occurred.
This study from 2025 also indicates that, in urban areas, light pollution is becoming a greater disruptor for growing seasonality than temperature is; which is HUGE considering how prevalent the urban heat island effect is. They found that these effects greatly lengthened the growing season and delaying the projected end dates. This is bad because it also disrupts the life cycles of everything reliant on the plant’s life cycles, such as parasites, feeding insects/animals etc. It can also even lower the amount of available water due to the plants requiring more water in prolonged growth seasons. These systems are dynamic and not in a vacuum.
In conclusion, light pollution and artificial light is a major environmental stressor that gets overlooked. Thank you for making this post to ask a very important question :)
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