Environmental science and pollution research internationalNov 8, 2023

Artificial light at night changes behavior and gene activity in oysters depending on light color

Circadian Biology Weekly Brief ↗PubMed ↗DOI ↗

Updated Jan 12, 2026

Abstract

All artificial light at night (ALAN) treatments affect the daily valve activity rhythm of the oyster Crassostrea gigas at 1 lx intensity.

Different spectral compositions of ALAN, including red, green, blue, and white light, influence the daily activity rhythms of oysters.
Blue light exhibits the most significant effects on the oysters' valve behavior and gene expression related to their biological clock.
Red and green lights also impact the daily rhythm, but to a lesser extent, with green light having the least effect.
White light has a similar impact to blue light concerning the percentage of rhythmic oysters, but the disruption of rhythmic parameters is less severe.
The study suggests that the spectral composition of ALAN may play a role in mitigating physiological and ecological impacts in coastal ecosystems.

Simplified

Artificial light at night (ALAN) constitutes a growing threat to coastal ecosystems by altering natural light cycles, which could impair organisms' biological rhythms, with resulting physiological and ecological consequences. Coastal ecosystems are strongly exposed to ALAN, but its effects on coastal organisms are poorly studied. Besides ALAN's intensity, ALAN's quality exposure may change the impacts on organisms. This study aims to characterize the effects of different ALAN's spectral compositions (monochromatic wavelength lights in red (peak at 626 nm), green (peak at 515 nm), blue (peak at 467 nm), and white (410-680 nm) light) at low and realistic intensity (1 lx) on the oyster Crassostrea gigas daily rhythm. Results reveal that all ALAN's treatments affect the oysters' daily valve activity rhythm in different manners and the overall expression of the 13 studied genes. Eight of these genes are involved in the oyster's circadian clock, 2 are clock-associated genes, and 3 are light perception genes. The blue light has the most important effects on oysters' valve behavior and clock and clock-associated gene expression. Interestingly, red and green lights also show significant impacts on the daily rhythm, while the lowest impacts are shown with the green light. Finally, ALAN white light shows the same impact as the blue one in terms of loss of rhythmic oysters' percentage, but the chronobiological parameters of the remaining rhythmic oysters are less disrupted than when exposed to each of the monochromatic light's treatments alone. We conclude that ALAN's spectral composition does influence its effect on oysters' daily rhythm, which could give clues to limit physiological and ecological impacts on coastal environments.

Full Text

Full text is available at the source.

View Full Text ↗

Artificial light at night changes behavior and gene activity in oysters depending on light color

Abstract

Full Text

You found one interesting study. We’ll send the next 7.

What Lands in Your Inbox Each Week:

Recent issues from the circadian biology brief

Abstract

Full Text

Related papers

You found one interesting study. We’ll send the next 7.

What Lands in Your Inbox Each Week:

Recent issues from the circadian biology brief