Sustainability of coral reefs are affected by ecological light pollution in the Gulf of Aqaba/Eilat

Yael Rosenberg; Tirza Doniger; Oren Levy

doi:10.1038/s42003-019-0548-6

Sustainability of coral reefs are affected by ecological light pollution in the Gulf of Aqaba/Eilat

Yael Rosenberg, Tirza Doniger, Oren Levy

The Mina and Everard Goodman Faculty of Life Sciences

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

41 Scopus citations

Abstract

As human populations grow and lighting technologies improve, artificial light gradually alters natural cycles of light and dark that have been consistent over long periods of geological and evolutionary time. While considerable ecological implications of artificial light have been identified in both terrestrial and aquatic habitats, knowledge about the physiological and molecular effects of light pollution is vague. To determine if ecological light pollution (ELP) impacts coral biological processes, we characterized the transcriptome of the coral Acropora eurystoma under two different light regimes: control conditions and treatment with light at night. Here we show that corals exposed to ELP have approximately 25 times more differentially expressed genes that regulate cell cycle, cell proliferation, cell growth, protein synthesis and display changes in photo physiology. The finding of this work confirms that ELP acts as a chronic disturbance that may impact the future of coral reefs.

Original language	English
Article number	289
Journal	Communications Biology
Volume	2
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-019-0548-6
State	Published - 1 Dec 2019

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, The Author(s).

Funding

The research leading to this paper has received funding from the Israeli Science Foundation (ISF), grant number 3928 to O.L. We would like to thank the staff and students at the Inter-University Institute (IUI) for Marine Sciences in Eilat for their hospitality and assistance with the field work, and Prof. Maoz Fine for allowing us to conduct our experiment in the Red Sea simulator system. Light measurements and seawater temperature (SST) were assigned using the Israel National Monitoring Program at the Gulf of Eilat (http://www.iui-eilat.ac.il/Research/NMPMeteoData.aspx). This study represents partial fulfillment of the requirements for a PhD thesis for Y. Rosenberg at Faculty of Life Sciences Bar-Ilan University, Israel.

Funders	Funder number
Israeli Science Foundation	3928

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Sustainability of coral reefs are affected by ecological light pollution in the Gulf of Aqaba/Eilat

Abstract

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