Abstract
As anthropogenic noise increases globally, there is an urgent need to understand how noise impacts ecological communities. Recent literature shows both terrestrial and aquatic species exhibit myriad responses to noise, including physiological stress, higher mortality, and habitat avoidance. Most studies focus on the responses of single species from terrestrial or marine habitats, with fewer examining freshwater systems and implications for trophic relationships. We used a laboratory study to investigate whether highland stonerollers (Campostoma spadecium), an algivorous freshwater fish, avoid recreational boat noise and thus graze preferentially in quieter areas. For seven groups of eight fish, we recorded the tank position (near, mid, far) of individual fish relative to a speaker playing intermittent boat noise (noise trials) and a mock speaker playing no noise (quiet trials) over a 3-day period. After each trial, we measured the proportion of algae grazed from tiles placed in each section of the tank. Our results show that fish did not avoid the noise speaker compared to fish near the mock speaker in the near section of the tank, but they were found in higher proportions in the quietest section of the tank (mid) during noise trials. There was no difference in the amount of algae consumed in any section when comparing quiet to noisy trials. Thus, our study did not indicate that recreational boat noise elicited clear avoidance behavior or impacted algal coverage. However, these results should be interpreted cautiously since sensitivity to noise pollution varies according to stimulus and species, and these results represent only one species from one geographic location.
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to D Lynch of the Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission for assisting in field collections of the fish subjects, and J Steward and M Stephenson of Hendrix College, who helped design the approaches for the acoustic playback and recording, respectively. Finally, thank you to A Turner, A Monroe, and B Turkal, who assisted with field work and laboratory setup.
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Funding was provided by the Arkansas Academy of Sciences and Hendrix College Department of Biology and Health Sciences.
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Claire E Turkal and Maureen R McClung conceived and designed the project. Claire E Turkal, Maureen R McClung, and Trystin F Anderson conducted field work, maintained the fish populations, and ran experiments. Claire E Turkal and Maureen R McClung analyzed data and prepared the initial manuscript. All authors reviewed drafts of the manuscript.
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The care and use of experimental animals complied with animal welfare laws, guidelines, and policies as approved by the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (Arkansas State Collection Permit No. 012620181) and Hendrix College’s Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC Protocol No. S1117).
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Turkal, C.E., Anderson, T.F. & McClung, M.R. Highland stonerollers (Campostoma spadecium) do not clearly avoid recreational boat noise or preferentially graze algae in quieter areas. Environ Biol Fish 104, 1005–1016 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-021-01135-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10641-021-01135-2