Artificial Light at Night (ALAN) has been identified as a primary driver of environmental change in the 21st century with key impacts on ecosystems. At the same time, developments of LED lighting systems with adjustable parameters—such as color temperature and light intensity—may provide an opportunity to mitigate the negative effects of ALAN. To test the potential effects of LED properties, we conducted a comprehensive field study over two summers at three forest sites in Switzerland. We investigated the impact of three key attributes of LED lights (color temperature, brightness, and luminaire shape) on the abundance and community structure of ground-dwelling invertebrate functional groups (predators, omnivores, and detritivores). We found a significantly increased nocturnal attraction of omnivores (+275%) and predators (+70%), but not detritivores, to ALAN, altering arthropod community composition and trophic interactions in forests. LED color temperature and luminaire shape showed minimal effects on all three functional groups, while reducing light level from 100% to 50% attracted fewer individuals in all groups with a significant effect in omnivores (−57%). In addition, we observed significant interactions of color temperatures and luminaire shapes with light intensity, with a decrease in numbers when dimming the light to 50% intensity combined with a color temperature of 3700 K for predators (−53%), with diffusing luminaire shapes for omnivores (−77%) and with standard luminaire shape for detritivores (−27%). The predator-detritivore ratio showed a significant color temperature – light level interaction, with increased numbers of predators around streetlights with 3700 K and 100% intensity, resulting in an elevated top-down pressure on detritivores. These results suggest the importance of considering combined light characteristics in future outdoor lighting designs.
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