M. Clara P. Amorim

University of Lisbon | UL · Departamento de Biologia Animal

Anthropogenic noise is globally recognized as a stressor for animals. However, despite evidence of detrimental effects of noise exposure on fish, knowledge about chronic effects on critical early life stages is still scarce. Using a split-brood design to exclude the genetic effect, African cichlids (Maylandia zebra) from the same brood were exposed...

Acoustic communication is linked to fitness traits in many animals, but under the current scenario of global warming, sound signals can be affected by rising temperatures, particularly in ectothermic organisms such as fishes. This study examines the effect of water temperature in acoustic communication in the two-spotted goby, Pomatoschistus flaves...

There is growing evidence that studying aquatic acoustic communities can provide ecologically relevant information. Understanding these communities may offer unique insights into species behaviour and ecology, while consolidating passive acoustic monitoring as a tool for mapping the presence of target species or estimating changes in aquatic biodiv...

Fish bioacoustics, or the study of fish hearing, sound production, and acoustic communication, was discussed as early as Aristotle. However, questions about how fishes hear were not really addressed until the early 20th century. Work on fish bioacoustics grew after World War II and considerably in the 21st century since investigators, regulators, a...

1. The rarest seal and the world's most endangered pinniped species, the Mediterranean monk seal (Monachus monachus), has a small and isolated population in the Madeira Archipelago (Portugal). This species tends to be extremely wary of humans and, therefore, very difficult to approach and study. 2. Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) is a non-invasi...

Danionella cerebrum has recently been proposed as a promising model to investigate the structure and function of the adult vertebrate brain, including the development of vocal–auditory neural pathways. This genetically tractable and transparent cypriniform is highly vocal, but limited information is available on its acoustic behavior and underlying...

Coral reefs are biodiversity hotspots in urgent need of protection in most areas of the tropical belt due to increasing local anthropogenic pressures and climate change. Sounds produced by fishes are an important component of soundscapes in these ecosystems, making passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) an effective tool to map the presence of target sp...

Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) is useful for monitoring vocal fish but has had so far limited application in fisheries management. Here, four years (2016–2019) of concurrent daily catch and effort fishery data in Portugal and species-specific vocal activity in the Tagus estuary are compared to describe biological and small-scale fishery dynamics...

The Neretva dwarf goby Orsinigobius croaticus (Gobiiformes, Gobionellidae) is an en-demic fish native to the freshwaters of the Adriatic Basin in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, a Mediterranean Biodiversity Hotspot. Due to its limited distribution range, specific karst habitat and endangered status, laboratory studies on reproductive biology ar...

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0241792.].

This paper outlines my research path over three decades while providing a review on the role of fish sounds in mate choice and reproduction. It also intends to provide advice to young scientists and point toward future avenues in this field of research. An overview of studies on different fish model species shows that male mating acoustic signals c...

Acoustic signals in teleost fishes play a fundamental role in reproduction. As fish are ectothermic animals, temperature has the potential to change their signal production and detection, with further implications for mating interactions. In this study, we describe the mating sounds made by the two-spotted goby, Pomatoschistus flavescens, for the f...

The ability to produce acoustic signals for active communication or in an agonistic context has evolved inconsistently within multiple fish families. Dactylopteridae, or flying gurnards, are a family of marine fishes that superficially resemble triglids, however, their acoustic properties are not so well understood. Dactylopterids are distributed a...

Aquatic noise has increased in the last decades, especially along the routes of freighter and in harbor areas. The increasing sounds are likely augmenting the pressure on aquatic animals’ acoustic communication and causing enhanced stress on populations inhabiting such regions. One of such areas, the Tagus estuary (Portugal), holds important mariti...

Anthropogenic noise is globally recognized as a stressor for animals. However, despite evidence of detrimental effects of noise exposure on fish, knowledge about chronic effects on critical early life stages is still scarce. Using a split-brood design to exclude the genetic effect, African cichlids (Maylandia zebra) from the same brood were exposed...

Invasive alien species have been rising exponentially in the last decades impacting biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. The soniferous weakfish, Cynoscion regalis, is a recent invasive sciaenid species in the Iberian Peninsula and was first reported in the Tagus estuary in 2015. There is concern about its possible impacts on native species, nam...

The growth of human populations has been driving an unprecedent and widespread increase in marine traffic, posing a real threat to marine biodiversity. Even though we are now aware of the negative effects of shipping noise exposure on fish, information about the impact on their early life stages continues to lack. Meagre (Argyrosomus regius) is a v...

Most marine soundscapes have changed due to the massive presence of anthropogenic noise. Lusitanian toadfish (Halobatrachus didactylus) is a vocal fish species that has been recurrently used as a model in both behavioral and physiological studies, making it an excellent species also to understand the effects of aquatic noise. This chapter aims to r...

Many teleost fishes use acoustic and visual signalling during courtship. Such displays may convey information about body condition. Here we experimentally altered body condition of sand goby (Pomatoschistus minutus) males to examine effects on acoustic and visual courtship and subsequent spawning decisions. Over two weeks, males fed in excess were...

Climate change is leading to an increase in the frequency and intensity of daily temperature extremes in aquatic environments, posing a threat to ectothermic animals, such as fishes. Temperature shifts can impact their reproductive cycle and behaviour, including acoustic signalling associated with courtship and mating in vocal fishes. Here, we exam...

Supplementary video 1. Sand-goby-visual-acoustic-display-video-clip.mp4 is a video clip which shows a male sand goby (Pomatoschistus minutus) courting two females. The male has a nuptial colouration with blue anal fin and a conspicuous dot on the dorsal fin. The females occasionally display darkened eyes. The male starts acoustic display (vocalisat...

Anthropogenic noise is a growing threat to marine organisms, including fish. Yet very few studies have addressed the impact of anthropogenic noise on fish reproduction, especially in situ. In this study, we investigated the impacts of boat noise exposure in the reproductive success of wild Lusitanian toadfish (Halobatrachus didactylus), a species t...

Marine traffic is the most common and chronic source of ocean noise pollution. Despite the evidence of detrimental effects of noise exposure on fish, knowledge about the effects on the critical early life stages - embryos and larvae - is still scarce. Here, we take a natural habitat-based approach to examine potential impacts of boat noise exposure...

Passive acoustic monitoring is a valuable tool for non-intrusive monitoring of marine environments, also allowing the assessment of underwater noise that can negatively affect marine organisms. Here we provide for the first time, an assessment of noise levels and temporal soundscape patterns for a European estuary. We used several eco-acoustics met...

Aquatic noise has increased in last decades imposing new constraints on aquatic animals' acoustic communication. Meagre (Argyrosomus regius) produce loud choruses during the breeding season, likely facilitating ag-gregations and mating, and are thus amenable to being impacted by anthropogenic noise. We assessed the impact of boat noise on this spec...

Anthropogenic noise is considered a major underwater pollutant as increasing ocean background noise due to human activities is impacting aquatic organisms. One of the most prevalent anthropogenic sounds is boat noise. Although motorboat traffic has increased in the past few decades, its impact on the communication of fish is still poorly known. The...

Males of several fish species aggregate and vocalize together, increasing the detection range of the sounds and their chances of mating. In the Lusitanian toadfish (Halobatrachus didactylus), breeding males build nests under rocks in close proximity and produce hundreds of boatwhistles (BW) an hour to attract females to lay their demersal eggs on t...

Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) is a non-intrusive and cost-effective method capable of providing high-resolution, long-term information on the status and health of vocal populations and communities. To successfully monitor the same species over wide geographical and temporal scales, it is necessary to characterise the range of sound variability,...

Fish sounds are important components of Azorean soundscapes. Therefore, unraveling their patterns can contribute to a better assessment of local biodiversity dynamics. Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) is a cost-effective, non-intrusive method providing long-term information regardless of weather or logistic conditions, which can be especially usef...

Many marine animals produce sounds in several phases of their life cycles, either actively or as a byproduct of their activities, such as during mate attraction or when moving. Recent studies of underwater soundscapes have proved passive acoustic monitoring to be a cost-effective, non-invasive tool to understand ecological processes, especially whe...

Aquatic animals use and produce sound for critical life functions, including reproduction. Anthropogenic noise is recognized as a global source of environmental pollution and adequate conservation and management strategies are urgently needed. It becomes therefore critical to identify the reproductive traits that render a species vulnerable to acou...

Marine and fresh waters of Europe and Ponto-Caspian region host an abundant and diverse goby fauna. Within them, a group of species is traditionally recognized as the sand gobies (genera Knipowitschia; Pomatoschistus; Economidichthys; Ninnigobius and Orsinigobius). Up to date, acoustic communication and vocal behaviour have been investigated in a r...

Background Many fish taxa produce sound in voluntary and in disturbance contexts but information on the full acoustic repertoire is lacking for most species. Yet, this knowledge is critical to enable monitoring fish populations in nature through acoustic monitoring. Methods In this study we characterized the sounds emitted during disturbance and v...

Information transfer between individuals typically depends on multiple sensory channels. Yet, how multi-sensory inputs shape adaptive behavioural decisions remains largely unexplored. We tested the relative importance of audio and visual sensory modalities in opponent size assessment in the vocal cichlid fish, Metriaclima zebra, by playing back mis...

Sounds produced by teleost fishes are an important component of marine soundscapes, making passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) an effective way to map the presence of vocal fishes with a minimal impact on ecosystems. Based on a literature review, we list the known soniferous fish species occurring in Azorean waters and compile their sounds. We also d...

Passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) is emerging as a cost-effective non-intrusive method to monitor the health and biodiversity of marine habitats, including the impacts of anthropogenic noise on marine organisms. When long PAM recordings are to be analysed, automatic recognition and identification processes are invaluable tools to extract the releva...

Just like humans, animals use signals to communicate with each other. For example, many male birds sing and dance to attract females. But what you may not know is that many fish do the same when they are fighting or mating. Unfortunately, humans are making a lot of noise in the ocean, which can disturb animal communication. There are many examples...

Many species rely on acoustic communication to fulfil several functions such as advertisement and mediation of social interactions (e.g., agonistic, mating). Therefore, fish calls can be an important source of information, e.g., to recognize reproductive periods or to assess fish welfare, and should be considered a potential non-intrusive tool in a...

Anthropogenic underwater noise is a global pollutant of increasing concern but its impact on reproduction in fish is largely unknown. Hence, a better understanding of its consequences for this important link to fitness is crucial. Working in aquaria, we experimentally tested the impact of broadband noise exposure (added either continuously or inter...

Anthropogenic noise has been increasing during the last decades, altering soundscapes throughout most aquatic environments. In estuarine shallow waters one of the most prevalent sources of underwater noise are motorboats and ferries. In this study we compared the effect of boat noise and ambient noise playbacks on the calling activity of Lusitanian...

This study focused on the use of sound playbacks as acoustic deterrents to direct native potamodromous migratory species away from all kind of traps. The effects of two acoustic treatments, a repeated sine sweep up to 2 kHz (sweep‐up stimulus) and an intermittent 140 Hz tone, were tested in three fish species native to Iberia: Salmo trutta, Pseudoc...

The meagre (Argyrosomus regius, Asso 1801) is one of the world's largest vocal sciaenids with a significant value for fisheries and aquaculture. There is still a lack of information on the meagre's vocal repertoire and hearing abilities, however, studies with many vocal fish species point to the existence of acoustic variability associated with ont...

Acoustic communication is an important part of social behaviour of fish species that live or breed in shallow noisy waters. Previous studies have shown that some fish species exploit a quiet window in the background noise for communication. However, it remains to be examined if hearing abilities and sound production of fish are adapted to marine ha...

Selection pressures on signals can be substantially modified by a changing environment, but we know little about how modified selection pressures act on multimodal signals. The currently increasing levels of anthropogenic noise in the ocean may affect the use of acoustic signaling relative to other modalities. In the Painted Goby (Pomatoschistus pi...

The Acoustic Complexity Index (ACI) is increasingly applied to the study of biodiversity in aquatic habitats. However, it remains unknown which types of acoustic information are highlighted by this index in underwater environments. This study explored the robustness of the ACI to fine variations in fish sound abundance (i.e. number of sounds) and s...

There are substantial concerns that increasing levels of anthropogenic noise in the oceans may impact aquatic animals. Noise can affect animals physically, physiologically and behaviourally, but one of the most obvious effects is interference with acoustic communication. Acoustic communication often plays a crucial role in reproductive interactions...

Fish acoustic signals play a major role during agonistic and reproductive interactions. Among the sound-generating fish, Gobiidae, a large fish taxa with 1866 valid species, is one of the most studied groups of acoustic fishes with sound production being documented in a number of species. Paradoxically, the sound producing mechanism remains poorly...

Communication is essential during social interactions including animal conflicts and it is often a complex process involving multiple sensory channels or modalities. To better understand how different modalities interact during communication, it is fundamental to study the behavioural responses to both the composite multimodal signal and each unimo...

Raw data

Several small bottom-living cryptic marine fish are known to produce sounds involved in intraspecific communication (De Jong et al. 2007). The family Cottidae, namely the genus Cottus, has already been described to include vocal species (Bisazza & Marconato 1988, Colleye et al. 2013). However, sound production in the monospecific genus Taurulus has...

Several small bottom-living cryptic marine fish are known to produce sounds involved in intraspecific communication (De Jong et al. 2007). The family Cottidae, namely the genus Cottus, has already been described to include vocal species (Bisazza & Marconato 1988, Colleye et al. 2013). However, sound production in the monospecific genus Taurulus has...

Animals often use acoustic signals when competing for limited resources. However, knowledge on how vocal behavior contributes to individual fitness in fish lags considerably behind that for terrestrial taxa. Here, I provide examples on how fish acoustic signals may confer an advantage in gaining access to food and mates. Fish sounds provide informa...

Multimodal communication is essential in social interactions in cichlid fish, including conspecifics’ recognition, agonistic interactions and courtship behaviour. Computer-manipulated image stimuli and sound playback offer powerful tools to assess the relative relevance of visual and acoustic stimuli in fish behavioural studies, but these technique...

Atmospheric CO2 levels have been increasing at an unprecedented rate due to anthropogenic activity. Consequently, ocean pCO2 is increasing and pH decreasing, affecting marine life, including fish. For many coastal marine fishes, selection of the adult habitat occurs at the end of the pelagic larval phase. Fish larvae use a range of sensory cues, in...

The file summarizes all the relevant data that have been used in the statistical analyses. (XLSX)