Davies, T. W., Coleman, M., Griffith, K. M., & Jenkins, S. R. (2015). Night-time lighting alters the composition of marine epifaunal communities. Biology Letters, 11(4), 20150080.
Abstract: Marine benthic communities face multiple anthropogenic pressures that compromise the future of some of the most biodiverse and functionally important ecosystems in the world. Yet one of the pressures these ecosystems face, night-time lighting, remains unstudied. Light is an important cue in guiding the settlement of invertebrate larvae, and altering natural regimes of nocturnal illumination could modify patterns of recruitment among sessile epifauna. We present the first evidence of night-time lighting changing the composition of temperate epifaunal marine invertebrate communities. Illuminating settlement surfaces with white light-emitting diode lighting at night, to levels experienced by these communities locally, both inhibited and encouraged the colonization of 39% of the taxa analysed, including three sessile and two mobile species. Our results indicate that ecological light pollution from coastal development, shipping and offshore infrastructure could be changing the composition of marine epifaunal communities.
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Davies, T. W., Duffy, J. P., Bennie, J., & Gaston, K. J. (2015). Stemming the Tide of Light Pollution Encroaching into Marine Protected Areas: Light pollution in marine protected areas. Conservation Lett., 9(3), 164–171.
Abstract: Many marine ecosystems are shaped by regimes of natural light guiding the behavior of their constituent species. As evidenced from terrestrial systems, the global introduction of nighttime lighting is likely influencing these behaviors, restructuring marine ecosystems, and compromising the services they provide. Yet the extent to which marine habitats are exposed to artificial light at night is unknown. We quantified nighttime artificial light across the world's network of marine protected areas (MPAs). Artificial light is widespread and increasing in a large percentage of MPAs. While increases are more common among MPAs associated with human activity, artificial light is encroaching into a large proportion of even those marine habitats protected with the strongest legislative designations. Given the current lack of statutory tools, we propose that allocating “Marine Dark Sky Park†status to MPAs will help incentivize responsible authorities to hold back the advance of artificial light.
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