datasets from Impacts of artificial light at night on the early life history of two ecosystem engineers

Sessile marine invertebrates play a vital role as ecosystem engineers and in benthic–pelagic coupling. Most benthic fauna develop through larval stages and the importance of natural light cycles for larval biology and ecology is long-established. Natural light–dark cycles regulate two of the largest ocean-scale processes that are fundamental to larvae's life cycle: the timing of broadcast spawning for successful fertilization and diel vertical migration for foraging and predator avoidance. Given the reliance on light and the ecological role of larvae, surprisingly little is known about the impacts of artificial light at night (ALAN) on the early life history of habitat-forming species. We quantified ALAN impacts on larval performance (survival, growth, development) of two cosmopolitan ecosystem engineers in temperate marine ecosystems, the mussel Mytilus edulis and the barnacle Austrominius modestus. Higher ALAN irradiance reduced survival in both species (57% and 13%, respectively). ALAN effects on development and growth were small overall, and different between species, time-points, and parentage. Our results show that ALAN adversely affects larval survival and reiterates the importance of paternal influence on offspring performance. ALAN impacts on the early life stages of ecosystem engineering species have implications not only for population viability but also the ecological communities these species support.This article is part of the theme issue ‘Light pollution in complex ecological systems’.

固着性海洋无脊椎动物在生态系统工程师及海底-浮游耦合中扮演着至关重要的角色。大多数海底生物通过幼虫阶段发育，自然光周期对幼虫生物学和生态学的重要性早已确立。自然光-暗周期调控着对幼虫生命周期至关重要的两大海洋尺度过程：大规模播散繁殖以实现成功受精的时机，以及昼夜垂直迁移以觅食和躲避捕食者。鉴于对光的依赖及其在幼虫生态作用中的角色，关于人工夜间光照（ALAN）对构建栖息地物种早期生命史影响的了解却十分有限。本研究量化了ALAN对两种温带海洋生态系统中的全球性生态系统工程师——贻贝 Mytilus edulis 和海藻 Austrominius modestus 幼虫性能（存活率、生长、发育）的影响。较高的ALAN辐射强度降低了两种物种的存活率（分别降低57%和13%）。ALAN对发育和生长的影响总体较小，且在不同物种、时间点和亲本来源之间存在差异。我们的结果表明，ALAN对幼虫存活产生不利影响，并再次强调了父本影响对后代性能的重要性。ALAN对生态系统工程师物种早期生命阶段的影响不仅对种群存活率具有影响，而且对这些物种所支持的生态群落也具有重要意义。本文是‘复杂生态系统中光污染’主题特刊的一部分。