Charpentier Corie L, Barnes Danielle K, Gidzinski Saige-Lyn, Jones Laura, Fuchs Heidi L
Department of BiologyCollege of Arts and Sciences, Stetson University, 421 N. Woodland Blvd, DeLand, FL 3272, USA.
Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA.
Mar Environ Res. 2025 Sep;210:107326. doi: 10.1016/j.marenvres.2025.107326. Epub 2025 Jun 24.
Light influences the biology of coastal animals by cueing behavior and biological clocks. Over the last 150 years, artificial light has increasingly illuminated the nighttime sky. Many coastal invertebrates begin life as planktonic larvae in waters exposed to artificial light at night (ALAN) along developed coastlines, but little is known about the impact of this light pollution on larval behavior. This study combined laboratory experiments and field observations. In the laboratory, we studied phototactic responses of crab, barnacle, and oyster larvae to diffuse sources of natural and artificial light representing skyglow from moonlight, a blue-filtered streetlight, and an LED streetlight. Late-stage, but not early-stage, crab larvae descended in response to increases in downwelling light, with the most dramatic responses to the LED treatment. Barnacle larvae ascended subtly in response to the moonlight and LED mimics, while oyster larvae showed no directional response to light stimuli. To assess whether photoresponses impacted larval depth in the field, we collected depth-stratified zooplankton samples at two coastal sites: a "dark" and "bright" site with low and high light pollution, respectively. During a full moon, zoeal larvae, particularly caridean shrimp, resided deeper at the bright site than at the dark site, in line with the observed photoresponses of crab larvae. Given that the most pronounced responses to ALAN were observed in relatively large crustacean larvae with complex visual systems, we predict that coastal light pollution likely disrupts depth regulation and thereby dispersal of late-stage zoeal larvae prior to settlement in adult habitat.
光通过影响行为和生物钟来影响沿海动物的生物学特性。在过去的150年里，人造光越来越多地照亮了夜空。许多沿海无脊椎动物在发育中的海岸线上夜间暴露于人造光（ALAN）的水域中，以浮游幼虫的形式开始生命，但关于这种光污染对幼虫行为的影响知之甚少。本研究结合了实验室实验和实地观察。在实验室中，我们研究了螃蟹、藤壶和牡蛎幼虫对代表月光、蓝色滤光路灯和LED路灯天空光的自然和人造光漫射源的趋光反应。晚期而非早期的螃蟹幼虫会随着下沉光的增加而下降，对LED处理的反应最为显著。藤壶幼虫对月光和LED模拟光有轻微的上升反应，而牡蛎幼虫对光刺激没有定向反应。为了评估光反应是否会影响野外幼虫的深度，我们在两个沿海地点采集了深度分层的浮游动物样本：一个“黑暗”地点和一个“明亮”地点，分别具有低和高的光污染。在满月期间，蚤状幼虫，特别是虾蛄，在明亮地点比在黑暗地点栖息得更深，这与观察到的螃蟹幼虫的光反应一致。鉴于在具有复杂视觉系统的相对较大的甲壳类幼虫中观察到对ALAN最明显的反应，我们预测沿海光污染可能会扰乱深度调节，并由此扰乱晚期蚤状幼虫在定居成年栖息地之前的扩散。
