Temporal and Spatial Comparisons of Underwater Sound Signatures of Different Reef Habitats in Moorea Island, French Polynesia
Date
2015-09-09
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
PLOS (Public Library of Science)
Abstract
As environmental sounds are used by larval fish and crustaceans to locate and orientate
towards habitat during settlement, variations in the acoustic signature produced by habitats
could provide valuable information about habitat quality, helping larvae to differentiate
between potential settlement sites. However, very little is known about how acoustic signatures
differ between proximate habitats. This study described within- and between-site differences
in the sound spectra of five contiguous habitats at Moorea Island, French
Polynesia: the inner reef crest, the barrier reef, the fringing reef, a pass and a coastal mangrove
forest. Habitats with coral (inner, barrier and fringing reefs) were characterized by a
similar sound spectrum with average intensities ranging from 70 to 78 dB re 1μPa.Hz-1. The
mangrove forest had a lower sound intensity of 70 dB re 1μPa.Hz-1 while the pass was characterized
by a higher sound level with an average intensity of 91 dB re 1μPa.Hz-1. Habitats
showed significantly different intensities for most frequencies, and a decreasing intensity
gradient was observed from the reef to the shore. While habitats close to the shore showed
no significant diel variation in sound intensities, sound levels increased at the pass during
the night and barrier reef during the day. These two habitats also appeared to be louder in
the North than in the West. These findings suggest that daily variations in sound intensity
and across-reef sound gradients could be a valuable source of information for settling larvae.
They also provide further evidence that closely related habitats, separated by less than
1 km, can differ significantly in their spectral composition and that these signatures might be
typical and conserved along the coast of Moorea.
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Citation
Bertucci F, Parmentier E, Berten L, Brooker RM, Lecchini D (2015) Temporal and Spatial Comparisons of Underwater Sound Signatures of Different Reef Habitats in Moorea Island, French Polynesia. PLoS ONE 10(9): e0135733. doi:10.1371/ journal.pone.0135733