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Acoustic communication in triglid fish

Authors:
M. Clara P. Amorim at University of Lisbon
M. Clara P. Amorim
Anthony D Hawkins at Loughine
Anthony D Hawkins
  • Loughine
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10/12/2015 Acousticcommunicationintriglidfish[abstract]|Bioacousticsjournal
http://www.bioacoustics.info/article/acousticcommunicationtriglidfishabstract 1/1
Authors:MC.deAmorim&A.D.Hawkins
Year:1995
Volume: 6
Issue:3
Frompage:220
Abstract:
Acousticbehaviourisknowntoplayanimportantroleinthesocialbehaviourofsomefish
species.Triglidfishareveryactivesoundproducersandemittypicalswimbladdersounds
duringsocialinteractions.ThesoundsofthegreygurnardEutriglagurnardus,the
streakedgurnardTrigloporuslastoviza,thetubgurnardTriglalucernaandthered
gurnardAspitriglacuculusarecompared.Allfourspeciesproducegruntorgrowling
sounds,thatdifferintheirtemporalandfrequencycharacteristics.Soundswerealways
producedinrelationtoagonisticbehaviourortoalarmreactions.Withinonespecies,the
greygurnard,thereisarepertoireof3typesofsounds:knocks,gruntsandgrowls.An
analysisoftheassociationbetweenthedifferentsoundsproducedbythisspeciesandits
behaviourispresented.
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Acousticcommunicationintriglidfish[abstract]
Citation:
MC.deAmorim&A.D.Hawkins(1995).Acousticcommunicationintriglidfish[abstract].
Bioacoustics6(3):220
Bioacousticsjournal
... Agonistic sounds have been described for the cod (Gadus morhua), the haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus), the pollack (Pollachius pollachius), and the more distant related gadiformes: the shore rockling (Gaidropsarus mediterraneus) and the tadpole fish (Ranicepus raninus). The pollack and the tadpole fish emit grunts, the cod and the haddock produce knocks and grunts, and the shore rockling makes thump-like sounds in agonistic or alarm situations (Brawn, 1961; Hawkins and Chapman, 1966; Hawkins and Rasmussen, 1978; Almada et al., 1996; Amorim, 1996a; Midling et al., 2002; also see Fish and Mowbray, 1970). Hawkins and Rasmussen (1978) compared the agonistic sounds of the cod, haddock, pollack and tadpole fish; all acoustic emissions consisted of low-frequency pulses and could be distinguished among species by differences in their temporal structure (Fig. 3.1; also seeTable 2 in Hawkins and Rasmussen, 1978). ...
... European gurnards and the American searobins readily increase the rate of sound production during competitive feeding (e.g. Amorim and Hawkins, 2000) or during disturbing situations (Amorim, 1996a; Connaughton, 2004). While the terminology and characteristics of the sounds emitted by searobins during competitive feeding are not very clear (e.g. ...
... Fish, 1954; Moulton, 1956; Fish and Mowbray, 1970), a recent study by Connaughton (2004) described the distress sounds made by the northern searobin (Prionotus carolinus) and suggested that these sounds are similar to the those (barks) made by this species during competitive feeding in captivity (Fish, 1954) and in the field (Fish and Mowbray, 1970). Likewise, the distress sounds emitted by the red gurnard (Aspitrigla cuculus) after being caught by trawl fishing (Amorim, 1996a) are comparable to those of the grey gurnard (Eutrigla gurnardus) recorded during competitive feeding (Amorim et al., 2004a). Hence, comparisons of agonistic sounds among species are made irrespective of the precise context (distress vs competitive feeding). ...
Diversity of sound production in fish
Article
Full-text available
  • Jan 2006
Fish sound characteristics are associated with different sound-generating mechanisms. Sounds produced by swimbladder-related mechanisms usually comprise low-frequency pulses produced at different rates. Fishes emit one to five sound types that do not show such outstanding variability as found in other taxa. However, closely related species show consistent differences in their sounds and in some species even individuality is found. Of particular interest are differences in courtship sounds made by closely related sympatric species that may promote reproductive isolation. Differences between individuals of the same species may in turn play a role in sexual selection through male-male competition and female mate choice. Other known sources of variability are related to context, including motivation and recent social status, season, time of day, ontogenetic changes and sexual dimorphism. Fish sound variability is mainly based on temporal patterning of sounds or pulses within a sound and on frequency variation (sometimes modulation). Such variability has been found to play a role in the social life of fishes.
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... The pectoral fins are larger and have conspicuous rows of large cobalt-blue dots on the dorsal surface (Fischer, 1973). Usually these fins are extended during visual displays in social interactions (Amorim, 1996). Streaked gurnards have a large physoclist swimbladder (Davenport, 1999), with a pair of strongly developed intrinsic sonic muscles, embedded laterally on either side. ...
... Streaked gurnards have a large physoclist swimbladder (Davenport, 1999), with a pair of strongly developed intrinsic sonic muscles, embedded laterally on either side. Rapid contractions of the sonic muscles cause the swimbladder wall to vibrate rhythmically, producing a typical drumming sound (Hawkins, 1968;Amorim, 1996). The acoustic signals made by triglids, including those of the streaked gurnards, are loud and conspicuous with main frequencies falling within the typical hearing sensitivity of fishes (Hawkins, 1993;Amorim, 1996). ...
... Rapid contractions of the sonic muscles cause the swimbladder wall to vibrate rhythmically, producing a typical drumming sound (Hawkins, 1968;Amorim, 1996). The acoustic signals made by triglids, including those of the streaked gurnards, are loud and conspicuous with main frequencies falling within the typical hearing sensitivity of fishes (Hawkins, 1993;Amorim, 1996). ...
Growling for food: acoustic emissions during competitive feeding of the streaked gurnard
Article
Full-text available
  • Oct 2000
The streaked gurnard Trigloporus lastoviza produced only one sound type, a growl, lasting up to 3 s and consisting of repeated groups of typically one to three pulses. The foraging fish followed two different strategies. In the first, the fish circled the feeding area, grasped a food item and fled, sometimes displaying aggressively to competitors. With this foraging strategy, fish usually made sounds as they circled, grasped and fled. Fish that growled while circling were more likely to grasp a food item subsequently than were silent fish. The second feeding strategy occurred when a fish had already ingested food or failed to get any. In this case, typically fish searched for food on the substratum or approached and touched other individuals that were feeding, sometimes grabbing food that was spat out during food handling by the other fish. Although payback experiments would be needed to draw firm conclusions on the communicative function of growling during competitive feeding in the streaked gurnard, the results suggest that sound production confers advantages Co individuals competing for limited food resources. (C) 2000 The Fisheries Society of the British Isles.
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... Captive triglids grunted and growled while being fed, providing the opportunity to investigate the role of acoustic signals during competitive feeding (Amorim and Hawkins, 2000;Amorim et al., 2004). I described their sounds and associated behaviour in detail, and investigated the ontogeny and the temporal patterns of sound production (seasonal and daily), among other aspects (Amorim, 1997(Amorim, , 2005Hawkins, 2000, 2005;Amorim et al., 2004). It was an exciting opportunity to work with one of the founders of fish bioacoustics and an enthusiast to this day. ...
... Importantly, I was often faced with the inability to identify the sound producer in a group of interacting fish (Amorim et al., 2004). Also, fish did not respond to acoustic playbacks (Amorim, 1997), hindering the collection of direct evidence of the function of acoustic signals. These difficulties are not inherent to this fish family but reflect the challenges scientists face to study acoustic communication in fishes (Ladich, 2004), including the mere identification of sound-producing fish species Rice et al., 2022;Parsons et al., 2022). ...
The role of acoustic signals in fish reproduction
Article
Full-text available
  • Nov 2023
  • J ACOUST SOC AM
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 can inform females and male competitors about their size (dominant frequency, amplitude, and sound pulse rate modulation), body condition (calling activity and sound pulse rate), and readiness to mate (calling rate, number of pulses in a sound). At least in species with parental care, such as toadfishes, gobies, and pomacentrids, calling activity seems to be the main driver of reproductive success. Playback experiments ran on a restricted number of species consistently revealed that females prefer vocal to silent males and select for higher calling rates. This personal synthesis concludes with the suggestion to increase knowledge on fish mating signals, especially considering the emerging use of fish sounds to monitor aquatic environments due to increasing threats, like noise pollution.
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... A third sound type, the growl, is heard typically at the end of grunt sequences but is emitted only rarely (Amorim et al. 2004). In the absence of conspecifics, this species rarely emits sounds during feeding bouts indicating that sound emission is part of the social/agonistic behavioural repertoire of this species (Amorim 1996). Typically, knocks are composed of 12 pulses, grunts of 48 and growls of more than 10 pulses, and also differ in their duration and pulse repetition rate (Fig. 1; Amorim et al. 2004). ...
... Grey gurnards make sounds by contracting sonic muscles attached to the gas-filled swimbladder. The vocal apparatus increases with fish size but does not show evident macroscopic structural changes (Amorim 1996). The peak frequency of sounds produced by a swimbladder mechanism is expected to decrease with fish size as the resonance frequency of the swimbladder reduces with size (e.g. ...
Growling for food: Acoustic emissions during competitive feeding of the streaked gurnard
Article
The streaked gurnard Trigloporus lastoviza produced only one sound type, a growl, lasting up to 3 s and consisting of repeated groups of typically one to three pulses. The foraging fish followed two different strategies. In the first, the fish circled the feeding area, grasped a food item and fled, sometimes displaying aggressively to competitors. With this foraging strategy, fish usually made sounds as they circled, grasped and fled. Fish that growled while circling were more likely to grasp a food item subsequently than were silent fish. The second feeding strategy occurred when a fish had already ingested food or failed to get any. In this case, typically fish searched for food on the substratum or approached and touched other individuals that were feeding, sometimes grabbing food that was spat out during food handling by the other fish. Although payback experiments would be needed to draw firm conclusions on the communicative function of growling during competitive feeding in the streaked gurnard, the results suggest that sound production confers advantages to individuals competing for limited food resources.
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... In the Azores and Madeira, several short, pulsed sounds occur mostly during the day, and they are the most similar to reported Pomacentridae sound types (Amorim, 1996;Picciulin et al., 2002; Table 1). The sounds represented in Figure 3E are the most similar and might be produced by the same species. ...
Cross-referencing unidentified fish sound data sets to unravel sound sources: a case study from the Temperate Northern Atlantic
Article
Full-text available
  • Aug 2024
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 biodiversity. Fish can be significant soundscape contributors, but most soniferous fish species are yet to be identified. Here, we crossed information of three key fish acoustic communities in the Lusitanian Province of the Temperate Northern Atlantic (the Madeira archipelago, the Azores archipelago and Arrábida in mainland Portugal) to unveil potential sources of unidentified fish sounds. We found that the three communities shared various sound types and we were able to narrow down the list of possible fish sound sources. Several sound types were suggested to be produced by species of the Pomacentridae, Scorpaenidae and Serranidae families. We also observed that the sound type / kwa /, associated with Scorpaena spp., exhibited more variations in the geographic area where more species of this genus are known to be present. This study showcases that, as databases of unidentified fish sounds continue to grow, future comparisons of multiple acoustic communities may provide insights into unknown fish sound sources and sound types.
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... Our results indicate that larval recruitment also differs between healthy and degraded hardbottom habitats. For instance, larvae from two families of fishes (Syngnathidae and Bleniidae) showed distinct differences in recruitment among habitats in this study and are known to respond to sound (Amorim, 1996), some of which may be cues produced by conspecifics (Colson et al., 1998). Recent laboratory work by Lillis et al. (2013) suggests that larvae of the oyster Crassostrea virginica settle in response to habitat-associated sound cues, and our study indicates that the bivalve clam Lima spp. ...
Habitat Restoration Restores Underwater Soundscapes and Larval Recruitment
Article
Full-text available
  • Mar 2022
Habitat degradation alters many ecosystem processes, and the potential for the reestablishment of ecosystem function through restoration is an area of active research. Among marine systems, coastal habitats are particularly vulnerable to anthropogenic degradation and, in response, are the focus of marine ecological restoration. One of the crucial functions of structurally complex coastal habitats (e.g., saltmarshes, seagrass meadows, kelp forests, coral reefs) are as nurseries to coastal and offshore species, many of whose larvae utilize sound to locate suitable nursery habitat. However, the effect of habitat degradation and subsequent restoration on underwater soundscapes and their function as navigational cues for larvae is unexplored. We investigated these phenomena in sponge-dominated hardbottom habitat in the waters surrounding the middle Florida Keys (Florida, United States) that have been degraded in recent decades by massive sponge die-offs caused by harmful algal blooms. One of the consequences of sponge die-offs are dramatic changes in underwater sounds normally produced by sponge-associated animals. We tested whether soundscapes from healthy hardbottom habitat influenced larval recruitment, and then examined how hardbottom degradation and restoration with transplanted sponges affected underwater soundscapes and the recruitment of larval fishes and invertebrates. Larval assemblages recruiting to healthy areas were significantly different than those assemblages recruiting to either degraded or restored hardbottom areas. Fewer larvae recruited to degraded and restored areas compared to healthy hardbottom, particularly during the full moon. Experimental playback of healthy hardbottom soundscapes on degraded sites did not promote larval community differences although some individual species responded to the playback of healthy habitat soundscapes. These results indicate that habitat-associated soundscapes have idiosyncratic effects on larval settlement, which is diminished by the degradation of nursery habitat but can be reestablished with appropriate habitat restoration.
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... Alternate contraction doubles the call frequency with only a small decrease in amplitude (about 3 dB), yet permits the muscles to contract at half the frequency (Connaughton, 2004). Surprisingly, gray gurnards and sculpins in the same family exhibit synchronous contraction (Bass and Baker, 1991; Amorim, 1996). ...
Sound-generating mechanisms in fishes: a unique diversity in vertebrates
Article
Full-text available
  • Jan 2006
Fishes have evolved the largest diversity of sonic organs among vertebrates. The main group of sound producing mechanisms is based on the swimbladder. These can be vibrated by intrinsic drumming muscles located in the wall of the swimbladder (toadfishes, searobins), or by extrinsic drumming muscles, which originate on structures such as the skull, vertebral processes or body wall musculature. Extrinsic drumming muscles insert either directly on the swimbladder (e.g. pimelodid catfish, tiger perches) or vibrate the swimbladder indirectly either via broad tendons (piranhas, drums) or via bony plates (elastic springs in doradid, mochokids and ariid catfishes). Pectoral sound-producing mechanisms include vibration of the pectoral girdle (sculpins), rubbing of the enhanced pectoral spine in a groove of the shoulder girdle (catfishes), and plucking of enhanced fin tendons (croaking gouramis). In addition, sounds can be produced by other morphological structures such as dorsal fin spines, neck vertebrae and pharyngeal teeth grating. In a few taxa, such as catfishes, two different sound-producing mechanisms (swimbladder and pectoral) are present simultaneously. In several other well-known vocalizing taxa (damsel fishes, gobies, loaches) the mechanisms remain unidentified. Sound-generating mechanisms may be similarly developed in males and females (croaking gourami) or sexually dimorphic, in which case they are always better developed in males. In toadfishes males possess a relatively higher sonic muscle mass than females, whereas in some drum species muscles are totally absent in females. In the midshipman Porichthys notatus, territorial males possess larger sonic muscles than parasitic sneaker males, which steal fertilizations. In drums sonic musculature hypertrophies seasonally, a process apparently controlled by the hormone testosterone.
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Characterization of the fish acoustic communities in a Mozambican tropical coral reef
Article
  • Jan 2024
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 species or to estimate changes in biodiversity. The present study aims to identify sound-producing fishes in Mozambican coral reefs based on the literature and to catalogue fish sound types recorded in situ. Based on the literature, we found 183 potentially soniferous species and 29 soniferous species with characterized sound production. Using acoustic recordings from coral reefs near Mozambique Island in March−April 2017 and 2018, a total of 47 putative fish sound types were recognized, from which the 37 most common were further characterized for several temporal and spectral features. A dichotomous classification of the major fish sound categories was prepared. Additional video recordings allowed identification of 4 sound-producing species: Chromis weberi, Dascyllus trimaculatus, Amphiprion akallopisos and A. latifasciatus. This study provides the first fish sound library for Western Indian Ocean coral reefs. Here, we also discuss how these simple methodologies can provide baseline knowledge to coustically monitor marine habitats like coral reefs. Such knowledge may pave the way to use sounds to assess changes in single-fish species or reef fish biodiversity.
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Characterization of the acoustic community of vocal fishes in the Azores
Article
Full-text available
  • Nov 2019
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 describe new fish sounds recorded in Azores seamounts. From the literature, we identified 20 vocal fish species present in Azores. We analysed long-term acoustic recordings carried out since 2008 in Condor and Princesa Alice seamounts and describe 20 new putative fish sound sequences. Although we propose candidates as the source of some vocalizations, this study puts into evidence the myriad of fish sounds lacking species identification. In addition to identifying new sound sequences, we provide the first marine fish sound library for Azores. Our acoustic library will allow to monitor soniferous fish species for conservation and management purposes.
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The Role of Sound in the Aquatic Environment
Chapter
  • May 2017
Sound travels about 1500 meters per second in sea water and can propagate for thousands of kilometers, more than other energy forms such as electromagnetic, chemical or thermal. A sound signal travelling in sea water suffers from decay of acoustic intensity, called transmission loss. In recent decades, anthropogenic activities have led to increased sea noise pollution and background sea noise, and changing the acoustic characteristics of marine ecosystems globally. Anthropogenic noise is now recognized as a major pollutant. Anthropogenic noise can directly or indirectly lead to alterations and other significant changes in marine habitats and organisms, causing auditory masking. Depending on several factors such as repetition rate of the sound, sound pressure level (SPL), frequency and duration, the noise impact may result in temporary threshold shift (TTS) or permanent threshold shift (PTS), a permanent loss of hearing which is generally accompanied by death of sensory hair cells of the ear in mammals.
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