Project description
Investigating the impact of artificial light at night on marine environments
The use of artificial light at night (ALAN) has been rapidly increasing over the past century, causing extensive environmental changes. How it affects marine organisms isn't widely known. Therefore, understanding the extent and impacts of light pollution on marine ecosystems requires urgent attention. The EU-funded CORALAN project aims to explore how ALAN can influence the structure and function of near-shore coral reef communities. By using a combination of manipulative field experiments and innovative acoustic methods, the project will investigate how ALAN modifies coral reef communities through influencing the settlement and post-settlement survival of larval fish and changing the biological rhythms of the reef community. The project will also assess the recovery potential of coral reef communities following the removal of ALAN.
Objective
Artificial light at night (ALAN) has been rapidly increasing over the past century, causing widespread environmental change. This ALAN can interfere with biological and ecological systems by masking natural light rhythms that regulate daily behaviours and physiology for many organisms. While research in this field is growing, the focus has primarily been on terrestrial systems whilst the impacts of ALAN on marine environments, and in particular on coral reef systems, are still relatively unexplored. To date, the only research on the impacts of ALAN on coral reefs examines the effects of light exposure at the organism level. How these changes in individual fitness and behaviour scale up to influence population and community level dynamics is still entirely unknown. This project, therefore, aims to explore how ALAN can influence the structure and function of near-shore coral reef communities. Using a combination of manipulative field experiments, and innovative acoustic methods, this project will investigate how ALAN modifies coral reef communities through 1) influencing settlement and post-settlement survival of recruiting larval fish, and 2) changing biological rhythms of the reef community. Furthermore, this project will 3) assess the recovery potential of coral reef communities following removal of ALAN. As we currently know very little about how ALAN affects marine organisms, understanding the extent and impacts of light pollution on marine ecosystems have been identified as key ecological research gaps that urgently need attention. The findings of this research will contribute to our understanding of coral reef community dynamics, and advance the larger field of global change ecology. Furthermore, the novel use of underwater soundscapes to quantify community change on coral reefs exposed to ALAN will provide support for the use of this tool as a rapid, efficient and cost-effective method of monitoring responses of marine communities to environmental change.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- natural sciences earth and related environmental sciences environmental sciences pollution
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology ecosystems
- medical and health sciences basic medicine physiology
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2020
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
EX4 4QJ Exeter
United Kingdom
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.