Trophic compensation stabilizes marine primary producers exposed to artificial light at night

Marine ecology progress series

E. Maggi^1¹ 

[1] Dipartimento di Biologia, CoNISMa, Università di Pisa, via Derna 1, 56126 Pisa, Italy^1

关键词: Compensatory dynamics;    Light pollution;    ALAN;    Trophic interactions;    Marine food webs;   

DOI  :  10.3354/meps12769

学科分类：海洋学与技术

来源: Inter-Research

【 摘 要 】

Artificial light at night (ALAN) is a widespread phenomenon along coastal areas. Despite increasing evidence of pervasive effects of ALAN on patterns of species distribution and abundance, the potential of this emerging threat to alter ecological processes in marine ecosystems has remained largely unexplored. Here, we show how exposure to white LED lighting, comparable to that experienced along local urbanized coasts, significantly enhanced the impact of grazing gastropods on epilithic microphytobenthos (MPB). ALAN increased both the photosynthetic biomass of MPB and the grazing pressure of gastropods, such that consumers compensated for the positive effect of night lighting on primary producers. Our results indicate that trophic interactions can provide a stabilizing compensatory mechanism against ALAN effects in natural food webs.

【 授权许可】

Unknown