https://phys.org/news/2018-12-artificial-night-danger-coral-reefs.html

"Coral reefs are immensely valuable ecosystems" explains Professor Wiedenmann, "but they are in serious decline due to global warming and local anthropogenic impacts such as coastal construction, overfishing, pollution and nutrient enrichment." He continues: "Key to coral reef survival is that the remaining individuals produce enough offspring that can recruit on damaged reefs and help them to recover."

To maximise reproductive success, many corals release their eggs and sperm at the same time, sometimes in only a single night of the year in a process called mass coral spawning. The timing of mass coral spawning is thought to be synchronised and triggered by the light of the moon. The scientists fear that the increasing amounts of artificial light at night may override the signal of the moonlight, resulting in a less efficient synchronisation of the coral reproduction and reduced recruitment of juvenile corals on reefs.