Artificial light at night does not alter heart rate or locomotor behaviour in Caribbean spiny lobster (Panulirus argus): insights into light pollution and physiological disturbance using biologgers

Abstract

Light pollution is a rapidly growing threat to biodiversity, with many unknown or poorly understood effects on species and ecosystems spanning terrestrial and aquatic environments. Relative to other taxa, the effects of artificial light at night on aquatic invertebrates are poorly understood, despite the abundance and integral significance of invertebrates to marine and freshwater ecosystems. We affixed heart rate and acceleration biologgers to adult Caribbean spiny lobster (Panulirus argus), an ecologically, culturally and economically significant species in the western Atlantic ocean, to test the effect of artificial light at night on this species’ physiology and behaviour relative to appropriate controls. The experiment was conducted in a simulated reef mesocosm in The Bahamas with incandescent lighting used to illuminate it at 1 lux, approximating light levels offshore of urban areas. In the conditions tested here, artificial light at night was found to have no effect on heart rate or locomotor activity in P. argus. We observed a dissociation between activity and heart rate at both short-term and long-term temporal scales. Lobsters were more active at night and nocturnal activity was higher in trials closer to new moon; however, heart rate did not vary with diel or lunar cycle. There was less than 8% difference between daytime and night time average heart rate despite the average percentage of time spent active almost tripling in nights versus days, to 19.5% from 7.2%, respectively. Our findings suggest P. argus may have some resilience to low levels of light pollution, which warrants further research on aspects of this species’ life history, performance and fitness in the face of this potential anthropogenic disturbance.

Availability of puerulus from natural catch for lobster panulirus spp. nursery culture

“…In contrast, the moonlight during the full moon phase will illuminate the waters, causing the use of lamps to be ineffective in attracting puerulus in the net. This condition causes the puerulus catch product during the full moon to be less than during the new moon (Fachry et al, 2018;Steell et al, 2020). During the new moon, fishermen will perform a fishing activity more similar to Gaol et al (2019), who stated that the fishing boat distribution in the sea increased by 400% during the new moon phase.…”

The metabolic underpinnings of temperature-dependent predation in a key marine predator

“…Such variation in temperature dependence makes it difficult to detect mean effects of temperature and suggests that in addition to environmental temperature, phenotypic plasticity, genetics (Somero, 2009;Razgour et al, 2019), behavioral diversity, or even maternal effects (e.g., egg size Reǵnier et al, 2012) may explain significant variation in lobster consumption rates. Future work should examine the high inter-individual variability in decapod physiological rates, particularly via longer measurements (>24 h) and ideally measuring free-ranging animals using loggers and/or telemetry (e.g., heart rate and accelerometery; McGaw and Nancollas, 2018;Steell et al, 2020;McGaw and Nancollas, 2021).…”

Tracking movements of decapod crustaceans: a review of a half-century of telemetry-based studies

“…temperature, depth) or biological characteristics (e.g. acceleration, heart rate) (Wilmers et al 2015, Jury et al 2018, McGaw et al 2018, Steell et al 2020 but do not transmit such high-quality data and thus require recapture. Many decapods have relatively small home ranges but still may not be easily recaptured and thus are generally not conducive to study using biologging techniques (i.e.…”