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’.

固着海洋无脊椎动物作为生态系统工程师，在底栖-浮游耦合过程中发挥着关键作用。多数底栖动物均需经历幼虫阶段完成发育，而自然光周期对幼虫生物学与生态学的重要性早已得到学界广泛认可。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：保障成功受精的散播式产卵时机，以及用于觅食与躲避天敌的昼夜垂直迁移行为。尽管幼虫依赖光照且具有重要生态功能，但令人意外的是，学界对夜间人工光（Artificial Light at Night, ALAN）对生境构建物种早期生活史的影响却知之甚少。本研究针对温带海洋生态系统中的两类广布性生态系统工程师——紫贻贝（*Mytilus edulis*）与澳密藤壶（*Austrominius modestus*），量化了ALAN对其幼虫性能（存活率、生长速率、发育进度）的影响。更高的ALAN辐照度会降低两个物种的幼虫存活率，降幅分别达57%与13%。总体而言，ALAN对幼虫发育与生长的影响较小，且因物种、采样时间点与亲本来源而异。本研究结果表明，ALAN会对幼虫存活率产生负面影响，同时再次证实了父本效应对子代性能的重要性。夜间人工光对生态系统工程师物种早期生活阶段的影响，不仅关乎物种种群的存续能力，也会对该物种所支撑的生态群落产生连锁效应。本文隶属于"复杂生态系统中的光污染"专题栏目。