Tamir Raz, Eyal Gal, Cohen Itay, Loya Yossi
School of Zoology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel.
The Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences in Eilat, Eilat 8810302, Israel.
Microorganisms. 2020 Jan 31;8(2):193. doi: 10.3390/microorganisms8020193.
The growth in human population along coastal areas is exposing marine environments to increasing anthropogenic light sources. Despite the potential effects of this modern phenomenon, very few studies have examined its implications for corals. Here, we present a long-term study of coral early life stages under light pollution conditions at night. Coral larvae were collected from colonies, and then settled and grown under experimental conditions of two different common city lighting methods (fluorescent or LED). Effects of the artificial lighting on the coral settlement success, survivorship, growth rate, photosynthetic efficiency, and calcification rate were examined over a period of one year. The control exhibited ~30% higher settlement success compared to the two light treatments, while under the light treatments corals showed higher survivorship, growth, and calcification rates. In addition, an indication of damage to the photosynthetic system was found in the light-polluted corals, which was reflected in their photosynthesis efficiency parameters: i.e., lower maximum light utilization coefficient (α), lower maximum potential photosynthetic rate (P), and lower photosynthetic maximal quantum yield (F/F). Our findings provide evidence of the potential adverse effects of artificial lighting methods on the natural environment of coral reefs. We conclude that the use of the LED lighting method has high interference potential for the early life stages of corals.
沿海地区人口的增长使海洋环境面临越来越多的人为光源。尽管这一现代现象存在潜在影响，但很少有研究探讨其对珊瑚的影响。在此，我们展示了一项关于夜间光污染条件下珊瑚早期生命阶段的长期研究。从珊瑚群体中采集珊瑚幼虫，然后在两种不同的常见城市照明方法（荧光灯或发光二极管）的实验条件下进行附着和生长。在一年的时间里，研究了人工照明对珊瑚附着成功率、存活率、生长速率、光合效率和钙化率的影响。与两种光照处理相比，对照组的附着成功率高出约30%，而在光照处理下，珊瑚的存活率、生长率和钙化率更高。此外，在受光污染的珊瑚中发现了光合系统受损的迹象，这反映在它们的光合作用效率参数上：即较低的最大光利用系数（α）、较低的最大潜在光合速率（P）和较低的光合最大量子产率（F/F）。我们的研究结果证明了人工照明方法对珊瑚礁自然环境可能产生的不利影响。我们得出结论，发光二极管照明方法对珊瑚的早期生命阶段具有很高的干扰潜力。
