Roost Thibaut, Hargous Jade, Van Espen Lise, Schligler Jules, Killen Shaun S, Beldade Ricardo, Swearer Stephen E, Mills Suzanne C
UAR 3278 CRIOBE, BP 1013, PSL Université Paris: EPHE-UPVD-CNRS, 98729 Papetoai, Moorea, French Polynesia.
National Centre for Coasts and Climate, School of Biosciences, University of Melbourne, Royal Parade, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia.
Conserv Physiol. 2025 Jun 17;13(1):coaf041. doi: 10.1093/conphys/coaf041. eCollection 2025.
Artificial light at night (ALAN) is an emergent yet already global form of sensory pollution. However, its effects on marine environments remain poorly understood compared to those on terrestrial ecosystems. Low-latitude ecosystems such as shallow coral reefs might be at greater risk as they experience little change in annual day length and reef organisms rely on moonlight illumination as a zeitgeber for critical biological processes. Moreover, many coral reef fish are demersal spawners, making them vulnerable to the effects of ALAN from early life. We performed a field experiment to determine whether artificial light affects the quality of fish embryos and newly hatched larvae by exposing wild nests of the orange-fin anemonefish () to white light emitting diode (LED) light (22 ± 2.0 lx; 4000 K) throughout the 6-day embryonic development period. We also explored whether light pollution indirectly influences offspring traits by measuring parental care investment. Exposure to ALAN altered embryo quality, leading to a reduction in egg volume (2.40%) and yolk reserves (6.11%) alongside an increase in heart rate (7.42%) a few hours before hatching. These changes reflect higher metabolic demands of embryos developing under light-polluted conditions. As parental care investment was unaffected by light pollution, our results suggest that these effects are more likely the consequence of a direct effect of ALAN on embryogenesis. In contrast, there was no influence of artificial light on the larval morphology or swimming performance, suggesting that the direct effects of ALAN on fish embryos do not cascade onto the larval stage immediately after hatching. These results may suggest that embryos compensated for ALAN exposure to maintain their early post-hatching larval performance. Further studies are needed to investigate whether light pollution exposure during embryonic development has delayed effects on larval performance during the dispersal phase or on larval survival.
夜间人造光（ALAN）是一种新兴但已全球化的感官污染形式。然而，与对陆地生态系统的影响相比，其对海洋环境的影响仍知之甚少。低纬度生态系统，如浅水珊瑚礁，可能面临更大风险，因为它们的年日照时长变化很小，而且珊瑚礁生物依赖月光照明作为关键生物过程的时间geber。此外，许多珊瑚礁鱼类是底栖产卵者，这使它们从幼体时期就容易受到ALAN的影响。我们进行了一项野外实验，通过在整个6天的胚胎发育期间将橙色鳍小丑鱼（）的野生巢穴暴露于白色发光二极管（LED）光（22±2.0勒克斯；4000开尔文）下，来确定人造光是否会影响鱼胚胎和新孵化幼体的质量。我们还通过测量亲代抚育投入来探究光污染是否会间接影响后代特征。暴露于ALAN会改变胚胎质量，导致孵化前几个小时卵体积减少（2.40%）和卵黄储备减少（6.11%），同时心率增加（7.42%）。这些变化反映了在光污染条件下发育的胚胎有更高的代谢需求。由于亲代抚育投入不受光污染影响，我们的结果表明这些影响更可能是ALAN对胚胎发生直接作用的结果。相比之下，人造光对幼体形态或游泳性能没有影响，这表明ALAN对鱼胚胎的直接影响不会在孵化后立即延续到幼体阶段。这些结果可能表明胚胎通过补偿ALAN暴露来维持其孵化后早期的幼体性能。需要进一步研究来调查胚胎发育期间暴露于光污染是否会对幼体在扩散阶段的性能或幼体存活产生延迟影响。
