Abstract
Coastal and shelf environments support high levels of biodiversity that are vital in mediating ecosystem processes, but they are also subject to noise associated with mounting levels of offshore human activity. This has the potential to alter the way in which species interact with their environment, compromising the mediation of important ecosystem properties. Here, we show that exposure to underwater broadband sound fields that resemble offshore shipping and construction activity can alter sediment-dwelling invertebrate contributions to fluid and particle transport - key processes in mediating benthic nutrient cycling. Despite high levels of intra-specific variability in physiological response, we find that changes in the behaviour of some functionally important species can be dependent on the class of broadband sound (continuous or impulsive). Our study provides evidence that exposing coastal environments to anthropogenic sound fields is likely to have much wider ecosystem consequences than are presently acknowledged.
Highlights
Coastal and shelf environments support high levels of biodiversity that are vital in mediating ecosystem processes, but they are subject to noise associated with mounting levels of offshore human activity
We found no evidence that exposure to continuous or impulsive sound fields over 7 days affected tissue concentrations of glucose (Ruditapes philippinarum, L-ratio = 0.393, d.f. = 2, p = 0.822; Nephrops norvegicus, L-ratio = 4.439, d.f. = 2, p = 0.109; Amphiura filiformis, L-ratio = 2.967, d.f. = 2, p = 0.227; Supplementary Figure S1) or lactate (R. philippinarum, F = 3.378, d.f. = 2, p = 0.068, Supplementary Model S1; N. norvegicus, L-ratio = 2.829, d.f. = 2, p = 0.243; A. filiformis, L-ratio = 0.389, d.f. = 2, p = 0.824; Supplementary Figure S2)
Pearson product moment correlations between lactate and glucose showed that changes in glucose mobilisation were not associated with changes in anaerobic metabolism (R. philippinarum, r = 0.24, t = 0.887, d.f. = 13, p = 0.39; N. norvegicus, r = 0.28, t = 1.053, d.f. = 13, p = 0.31; A. filiformis, r= 0.39, t = 1.521, d.f. = 13, p = 0.15)
Summary
Coastal and shelf environments support high levels of biodiversity that are vital in mediating ecosystem processes, but they are subject to noise associated with mounting levels of offshore human activity This has the potential to alter the way in which species interact with their environment, compromising the mediation of important ecosystem properties. It is known that context-dependent changes to organism physiology can alter species’ behaviour that pre-empt measureable changes in a species’ functional contribution to ecosystem properties[32,33] This presents the possibility that increased exposure to different types of intense underwater sound may adversely impact the faunal mediation of important ecosystem processes that underpin the delivery of benefits to society, including carbon storage and nutrient cycling. We speculated that these responses would affect particle-mixing and fluid transport behaviour, important mediators of nutrient regeneration in benthic environments
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