Effect of light pollution, habitat complexity and proximity to coastal infrastructures on the dynamics and diversity of marine benthic communities

• Grant number: 19/15628-1
• Support Opportunities: BIOTA-FAPESP Program - Regular Research Grants
• Duration: May 01, 2020 - April 30, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Ecosystems Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Gustavo Muniz Dias
• Grantee: Gustavo Muniz Dias
• Host Institution: Centro de Ciências Naturais e Humanas (CCNH). Universidade Federal do ABC (UFABC). Ministério da Educação (Brasil). Santo André , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Edson Aparecido Vieira Filho ; Fernando Zaniolo Gibran ; Rafael Campos Duarte ; Stuart Rees Jenkins ; Thomas Davies
• Associated scholarship(s): 22/06265-5 - Light pollution and habitat complexity as causes of the structure of mobile and sessile communities, BP.TT

Abstract

Marinas, harbors and piers increase the availability of substrate for the development of sessile communities but are also associated with a range of sources of anthropogenic disturbance. Pollution, reduced top-down control and other disturbances in artificial habitats tend to exclude some native species, facilitating the introduction of non-indigenous species and determining that artificial habitats support biological communities which differ from those in natural habitats. Recently light pollution has been recognized as an important impact on coastal environments. For example, artificial light at night can change fish and turtle behavior, increase predation pressure on sessile communities and affect larval settlement thus affecting the dynamics of sessile communities in artificial habitats. Using ecological knowledge to build marine infrastructure that resembles natural habitats would allow economic development without causing negative environmental impact. For example, increasing complexity of flat surfaces in marinas can make communities in artificial habitats more similar to those in natural habitats nearby and thus reduce the impact of ocean sprawl. In this project we will experimentally manipulate artificial light at night, the proximity of substrate to coastal infrastructure and substrate complexity to assess how these factors affect the diversity, species composition, occurrence of non-indigenous species and the dynamics of marine sessile communities from artificial habitats in Southeastern Brazil. (AU)

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

DUARTE, RAFAEL C.; DIAS, GUSTAVO M.; FLORES, V, AUGUSTO A.; STEVENS, MARTIN. Different ontogenetic trajectories of body colour, pattern and crypsis in two sympatric intertidal crab species. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, v. 132, n. 1, p. 17-31, JAN 2021. (19/01934-3, 15/22258-5, 19/15628-1)

TANASOVICI, RODRIGO M.; DIAS, GUSTAVO M.; KITAHARA, V, MARCELO; VIEIRA, EDSON A.. nduring regardless the conditions: Plasticity in modular growth as a strategy to cope with hydrodynamic variation by the invasive sun-coral (Tubastraea spp.. MARINE ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH, v. 174, FEB 2022. (16/17647-5, 19/15628-1, 14/01332-0)

VIEIRA, EDSON A.; FLORES, V, AUGUSTO A.; DIAS, GUSTAVO M.. Colonization history meets further niche processes: how the identity of founders modulates the way predation structure fouling communities. Oecologia, v. 196, n. 4, JUL 2021. (12/18432-1, 19/15628-1, 16/17647-5)