Understanding the impacts and trajectories of global change on temperate reefs through the lens of sensory ecology: Light cycles and light pollutionBroad-scale Spatial Patterns

Svenja Tidau¹, Thomas W. Davies²

¹Bangor University, UK - ²University of Plymouth, UK

Sensory ecology, the study of how organisms acquire, process and respond to information about their environment, provides a valuable framework for understanding impacts of anthropogenic pollutants like light and noise on wildlife, communities and ultimately ecosystem processes. Combining a sensory ecology framework with ecophysiology and life history strategies can facilitate mechanistic understanding of global impacts on and trajectories of temperate reefs in the Anthropocene.

I will illustrate this approach for temperate reefs by focussing on the fundamental role of natural nighttime light and artificial light at night (ALAN) as a sensory pollutant and driver of global change in intertidal rocky shore communities.

Natural light represents the most predictable environmental cycle. Natural light intensity, spectra, and periodicity influence diverse biological and ecological process including organisms’ health, physiology, reproduction, synchronisation, activity patterns, species interactions and ultimately energy flows. While circadian adaptations to daily day-night cycles are near ubiquitous in nature found across kingdoms and biomes, shorter or longer periodicities (tidal, lunar/semi-lunar cycle, seasons) can be likewise important.

ALAN is a pervasive and increasingly studied anthropogenic sensory pollutant. I will present latest evidence on how ALAN alters marine lightscapes and disrupts light-driven biological and ecological processes linked to light intensity, spectra and periodicity.

I will finish by giving an outlook on how sensory ecology highlights knowledge gaps in fundamental ecology (e.g., nocturnal ecology, temporal niche partitioning) and can inform conservation and management of marine habitats.