Lin Meng

City Lights Are Rewriting the Calendar: Vanderbilt Researchers Show Artificial Light Extends Urban Growing Seasons

Sep. 23, 2025—By Andy Flick, Evolutionary Studies scientific coordinator City lights are rewriting the calendar. A new global study from Vanderbilt researchers Lin Meng and Huidong Li shows that artificial light at night is more powerful than temperature in extending urban growing seasons — keeping trees greener longer, with consequences for carbon cycling, frost risk, and even...

Visual representation of the Bortle scale showing varying levels of light pollution, from an 'Excellent Dark Sky Site' with a clear view of the Milky Way to a 'City/Inner City Sky' with bright lights from an urban skyline, illustrating the gradient of light pollution from rural to urban areas.

VU Graduate Student Uses Satellites to Provide Critical ALAN Data for Public Policy

Aug. 9, 2024—By: Alexandria Leeper, Evolutionary Studies Graduate Communications Assistant Imagine you are trying to stargaze. You live in a suburban area where there are little streetlamps, and the darkness of the night envelops most of the sky, making the stars visible. However, you are adjacent to a major city. When you turn your gaze towards that...