Steell S Clay, Cooke Steven J, Eliason Erika J
Fish Ecology and Conservation Physiology Laboratory, Department of Biology, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Dr., Ottawa, ON K1S 5B6, Canada.
Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.
Conserv Physiol. 2020 Dec 7;8(1):coaa097. doi: 10.1093/conphys/coaa097. eCollection 2020.
Light pollution is a rapidly growing threat to biodiversity, with many unknown or poorly understood effects on species and ecosystems spanning terrestrial and aquatic environments. Relative to other taxa, the effects of artificial light at night on aquatic invertebrates are poorly understood, despite the abundance and integral significance of invertebrates to marine and freshwater ecosystems. We affixed heart rate and acceleration biologgers to adult Caribbean spiny lobster (), an ecologically, culturally and economically significant species in the western Atlantic ocean, to test the effect of artificial light at night on this species' physiology and behaviour relative to appropriate controls. The experiment was conducted in a simulated reef mesocosm in The Bahamas with incandescent lighting used to illuminate it at 1 lux, approximating light levels offshore of urban areas. In the conditions tested here, artificial light at night was found to have no effect on heart rate or locomotor activity in . We observed a dissociation between activity and heart rate at both short-term and long-term temporal scales. Lobsters were more active at night and nocturnal activity was higher in trials closer to new moon; however, heart rate did not vary with diel or lunar cycle. There was less than 8% difference between daytime and night time average heart rate despite the average percentage of time spent active almost tripling in nights versus days, to 19.5% from 7.2%, respectively. Our findings suggest may have some resilience to low levels of light pollution, which warrants further research on aspects of this species' life history, performance and fitness in the face of this potential anthropogenic disturbance.
光污染对生物多样性的威胁正在迅速增长，对跨越陆地和水生环境的物种及生态系统有着许多未知或了解甚少的影响。相对于其他生物分类群，夜间人造光对水生无脊椎动物的影响了解甚少，尽管无脊椎动物在海洋和淡水生态系统中数量众多且具有不可或缺的重要性。我们将心率和加速度记录仪附着在成年加勒比刺龙虾（）身上，这是西大西洋一种在生态、文化和经济方面都具有重要意义的物种，以测试夜间人造光相对于适当对照对该物种生理和行为的影响。实验在巴哈马群岛一个模拟珊瑚礁的中型生态系统中进行，使用白炽灯以1勒克斯的光照度照亮，近似城市地区近海的光照水平。在此测试条件下，发现夜间人造光对加勒比刺龙虾的心率或运动活动没有影响。我们在短期和长期时间尺度上都观察到了活动与心率之间的分离。龙虾在夜间更活跃，且在接近新月的试验中夜间活动更高；然而，心率并未随昼夜或月周期而变化。尽管夜间活动的平均时间百分比几乎是白天的三倍，分别从7.2%增至19.5%，但白天和夜间的平均心率差异不到8%。我们的研究结果表明，加勒比刺龙虾可能对低水平的光污染具有一定的恢复力，这值得进一步研究该物种在面对这种潜在人为干扰时的生活史、表现和适应性等方面。
