News Finding: But the results of this study showed that even a little bit of light (20 times less than the intensity of a single street light) is enough to throw off the delicate ecological timing of reproductive maturity.
Paper Finding: ¼ 38, z ¼ 23.28, p ¼ 0.001).
News Context: That month-long head-start is a big deal considering their entire breeding season only lasts three or four months total. But the results of this study showed that even a little bit of light (20 times less than the intensity of a single street light) is enough to throw off the delicate ecological timing of reproductive maturity. The ecological consequences of such a timing shift could thus be serious, especially as our world continues to urbanize at an increasing pace.
Paper Context: In addition, we detected within-treatment differences: in both treatment groups city birds started moult on average 13 days before forest birds (GLM, d.f. ¼ 38, z ¼ 23.28, p ¼ 0.001). Both control and treatment groups showed seasonal variation in the onset of morning song.