Predicting the reef acoustic cuescape from the perspective of larval fishes across a habitat quality gradient
Authored by Andria K Salas, Andrew H Altieri, Preston S Wilson, Timothy H Keitt
Date Published: 2018
DOI: 10.3354/meps12737
Sponsors:
United States Office of Naval Research (ONR)
Platforms:
No platforms listed
Model Documentation:
ODD
Model Code URLs:
Model code not found
Abstract
The combined acoustic activity of soniferous organisms living in benthic
habitats produces habitat-specific soundscapes, which are predicted to
influence fish and invertebrate larval behavior during the settlement
process. Not every sound will have the amplitude and frequency
characteristics relative to hearing sensitivity to be used as an
acoustic cue, thus the cuescape is a subset of the soundscape. These
sounds vary through space and time, and little is known about how this
variability could influence their role in settlement. We recorded the
soundscapes of 4 coral reefs in Caribbean Panama for 6 wk and
conservatively identified the sounds most likely to compose the
cuescapes used by larval fishes. While these sites represented the
variation in reef condition across the study area, we observed the same
4 dominant taxa groups emerge as the most likely producers of acoustic
cues. These results were consistent across both time and space when
compared to short-term recordings taken at these 4 reefs and at an
additional 11 sites 2 yr prior. Next, we used an individual-based model
to test the relationship between settlement success and the natural
spatiotemporal variability we observed in these potential cues. Temporal
variation in the sounds resulted in variation in settlement success;
however, even short-range, intermittent cues improved the likelihood of
settlement. Overall, we observed similar acoustic cuescapes across reefs
that varied in condition, suggesting that cuescapes can be resilient to
some forms of reef degradation by retaining sounds potentially useful to
larval fishes for both navigation and habitat selection.
Tags
Coral reef
modeling
Phase-shifts
Fish behavior
Cues
Pelagic larvae
Larval fish
Coral-reef
Larval settlement
Soundscape
Acoustics
Underwater sound signatures
Bocas del toro
Toadfishes batrachoididae
Particle motion
Caribbean coral
Gulf
toadfish
Barrier-reef