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Research Article

Habitat degradation negatively affects auditory settlement behavior of coral reef fishes

View ORCID ProfileTimothy A. C. Gordon, Harry R. Harding, Kathryn E. Wong, Nathan D. Merchant, Mark G. Meekan, View ORCID ProfileMark I. McCormick, Andrew N. Radford, and Stephen D. Simpson
PNAS May 15, 2018 115 (20) 5193-5198; first published April 30, 2018; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1719291115
Timothy A. C. Gordon
aBiosciences, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4QD, United Kingdom;
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  • ORCID record for Timothy A. C. Gordon
  • For correspondence: tg333@exeter.ac.uk
Harry R. Harding
bSchool of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TQ, United Kingdom;
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Kathryn E. Wong
cDepartment of Biology, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708;
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Nathan D. Merchant
dCentre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, Suffolk NR33 0HT, United Kingdom;
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Mark G. Meekan
eAustralian Institute of Marine Science, Perth, WA 6009, Australia;
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Mark I. McCormick
fAustralian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia;
gDepartment of Marine Biology and Aquaculture, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia
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  • ORCID record for Mark I. McCormick
Andrew N. Radford
bSchool of Biological Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1TQ, United Kingdom;
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Stephen D. Simpson
aBiosciences, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Exeter EX4 4QD, United Kingdom;
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  1. Edited by Nancy Knowlton, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, and approved March 19, 2018 (received for review November 4, 2017)

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Significance

Climate change is causing widespread damage to the world’s tropical coral reefs, via increases in cyclones and mass bleaching. Healthy populations of reef fishes facilitate recovery from such events, and recruitment of juvenile fish is influenced by acoustic cues that guide larval orientation, habitat selection, and settlement to reefs. Our matched recordings of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef before and after recent severe degradation demonstrate major changes to natural reef sound. In field experiments using these recordings, we show the potential impact of such acoustic changes. Postdegradation reef sounds were less attractive to young fishes than their predegradation equivalents. Reductions in fish settlement, caused by acoustic changes, may threaten the recovery potential of degraded coral reefs.

Abstract

Coral reefs are increasingly degraded by climate-induced bleaching and storm damage. Reef recovery relies on recruitment of young fishes for the replenishment of functionally important taxa. Acoustic cues guide the orientation, habitat selection, and settlement of many fishes, but these processes may be impaired if degradation alters reef soundscapes. Here, we report spatiotemporally matched evidence of soundscapes altered by degradation from recordings taken before and after recent severe damage on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Postdegradation soundscapes were an average of 15 dB re 1 µPa quieter and had significantly reduced acoustic complexity, richness, and rates of invertebrate snaps compared with their predegradation equivalents. We then used these matched recordings in complementary light-trap and patch-reef experiments to assess responses of wild fish larvae under natural conditions. We show that postdegradation soundscapes were 8% less attractive to presettlement larvae and resulted in 40% less settlement of juvenile fishes than predegradation soundscapes; postdegradation soundscapes were no more attractive than open-ocean sound. However, our experimental design does not allow an estimate of how much attraction and settlement to isolated postdegradation soundscapes might change compared with isolated predegradation soundscapes. Reductions in attraction and settlement were qualitatively similar across and within all trophic guilds and taxonomic groups analyzed. These patterns may lead to declines in fish populations, exacerbating degradation. Acoustic changes might therefore trigger a feedback loop that could impair reef resilience. To understand fully the recovery potential of coral reefs, we must learn to listen.

  • acoustics
  • climate change
  • coral reefs
  • Great Barrier Reef
  • settlement

Footnotes

  • ↵1To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: tg333{at}exeter.ac.uk.
  • Author contributions: T.A.C.G., H.R.H., M.G.M., M.I.M., A.N.R., and S.D.S. designed research; T.A.C.G., H.R.H., K.E.W., M.I.M., and S.D.S. performed research; T.A.C.G., N.D.M., A.N.R., and S.D.S. analyzed data; and T.A.C.G., H.R.H., K.E.W., N.D.M., M.G.M., M.I.M., A.N.R., and S.D.S. wrote the paper.

  • The authors declare no conflict of interest.

  • This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.

  • Data deposition: Raw data are available from the University of Exeter’s institutional repository at https://doi.org/10.24378/exe.265.

  • This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1719291115/-/DCSupplemental.

  • Copyright © 2018 the Author(s). Published by PNAS.

This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND).

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Habitat degradation negatively affects auditory settlement behavior of coral reef fishes
Timothy A. C. Gordon, Harry R. Harding, Kathryn E. Wong, Nathan D. Merchant, Mark G. Meekan, Mark I. McCormick, Andrew N. Radford, Stephen D. Simpson
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences May 2018, 115 (20) 5193-5198; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1719291115

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Habitat degradation negatively affects auditory settlement behavior of coral reef fishes
Timothy A. C. Gordon, Harry R. Harding, Kathryn E. Wong, Nathan D. Merchant, Mark G. Meekan, Mark I. McCormick, Andrew N. Radford, Stephen D. Simpson
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences May 2018, 115 (20) 5193-5198; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1719291115
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