Dataset Information

Boat noise impacts risk assessment in a coral reef fish but effects depend on engine type.

ABSTRACT: Human noise pollution has increased markedly since the start of industrialization and there is international concern about how this may impact wildlife. Here we determined whether real motorboat noise affected the behavior, space use and escape response of a juvenile damselfish (Pomacentrus wardi) in the wild, and explored whether fish respond effectively to chemical and visual threats in the presence of two common types of motorboat noise. Noise from 30?hp 2-stroke outboard motors reduced boldness and activity of fish on habitat patches compared to ambient reef-sound controls. Fish also no longer responded to alarm odours with an antipredator response, instead increasing activity and space use, and fewer fish responded appropriately to a looming threat. In contrast, while there was a minor influence of noise from a 30?hp 4-stroke outboard on space use, there was no influence on their ability to respond to alarm odours, and no impact on their escape response. Evidence suggests that anthropogenic noise impacts the way juvenile fish assess risk, which will reduce individual fitness and survival, however, not all engine types cause major effects. This finding may give managers options by which they can reduce the impact of motorboat noise on inshore fish communities.

SUBMITTER: McCormick MI

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5832755 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Publications

Boat noise impacts risk assessment in a coral reef fish but effects depend on engine type.

McCormick Mark I MI Allan Bridie J M BJM Harding Harry H Simpson Stephen D SD Simpson Stephen D SD

Scientific reports 20180301 1

Human noise pollution has increased markedly since the start of industrialization and there is international concern about how this may impact wildlife. Here we determined whether real motorboat noise affected the behavior, space use and escape response of a juvenile damselfish (Pomacentrus wardi) in the wild, and explored whether fish respond effectively to chemical and visual threats in the presence of two common types of motorboat noise. Noise from 30 hp 2-stroke outboard motors reduced boldn ...[more]

PMID: 29497097

Similar Datasets

Project description:Noise produced by anthropogenic activities is increasing in many marine ecosystems. We investigated the effect of playback of boat noise on fish cognition. We focused on noise from small motorboats, since its occurrence can dominate soundscapes in coastal communities, the number of noise-producing vessels is increasing rapidly and their proximity to marine life has the potential to cause deleterious effects. Cognition-or the ability of individuals to learn and remember information-is crucial, given that most species rely on learning to achieve fitness-promoting tasks, such as finding food, choosing mates and recognizing predators. The caveat with cognition is its latent effect: the individual that fails to learn an important piece of information will live normally until the moment where it needs the information to make a fitness-related decision. Such latent effects can easily be overlooked by traditional risk assessment methods. Here, we conducted three experiments to assess the effect of boat noise playbacks on the ability of fish to learn to recognize predation threats, using a common, conserved learning paradigm. We found that fish that were trained to recognize a novel predator while being exposed to 'reef + boat noise' playbacks failed to subsequently respond to the predator, while their 'reef noise' counterparts responded appropriately. We repeated the training, giving the fish three opportunities to learn three common reef predators, and released the fish in the wild. Those trained in the presence of 'reef + boat noise' playbacks survived 40% less than the 'reef noise' controls over our 72 h monitoring period, a performance equal to that of predator-naive fish. Our last experiment indicated that these results were likely due to failed learning, as opposed to stress effects from the sound exposure. Neither playbacks nor real boat noise affected survival in the absence of predator training. Our results indicate that boat noise has the potential to cause latent effects on learning long after the stressor has gone.

Dataset Information

Boat noise impacts risk assessment in a coral reef fish but effects depend on engine type.

Publications

Boat noise impacts risk assessment in a coral reef fish but effects depend on engine type.

Similar Datasets

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

Tweets