Abstract
Anthropogenic noise is a pollutant of international concern, with mounting evidence of disturbance and impacts on animal behaviour and physiology. However, empirical studies measuring survival consequences are rare. We use a field experiment to investigate how repeated motorboat-noise playback affects parental behaviour and offspring survival in the spiny chromis (Acanthochromis polyacanthus), a brooding coral reef fish. Repeated observations were made for 12 days at 38 natural nests with broods of young. Exposure to motorboat-noise playback compared to ambient-sound playback increased defensive acts, and reduced both feeding and offspring interactions by brood-guarding males. Anthropogenic noise did not affect the growth of developing offspring, but reduced the likelihood of offspring survival; while offspring survived at all 19 nests exposed to ambient-sound playback, six of the 19 nests exposed to motorboat-noise playback suffered complete brood mortality. Our study, providing field-based experimental evidence of the consequences of anthropogenic noise, suggests potential fitness consequences of this global pollutant.
Highlights
Mounting evidence indicates that anthropogenic noise, a pervasive pollutant, disturbs and has detrimental effects on a wide range of species, including mammals, birds, anurans, fishes, and invertebrates
In cases where offspring glancing did occur, it did so three times less often at nests exposed to motorboat-noise playback compared to those exposed to ambient-sound playback (GLMM: x21 1⁄4 5:07, p 1⁄4 0.024; male ID: variance 1⁄4 0, s.d. 1⁄4 0; time of day: variance 1⁄4 0.16, s.d. 1⁄4 0.40; figure 2c); there was a nonsignificant trend for a positive effect of number of days of sound exposure (x21 1⁄4 3:47, p 1⁄4 0.063)
The increased number of defensive acts by A. polyacanthus brood-guarding males exposed to motorboat-noise playback compared to ambient-sound playback did not appear to be the consequence of a change in the local fish community, because there was no observed effect of sound treatment on community composition surrounding A. polyacanthus nest sites (ANOSIM: R 1⁄4 20.022, p 1⁄4 0.632; all pairwise comparisons, p . 0.90)
Summary
Mounting evidence indicates that anthropogenic noise, a pervasive pollutant, disturbs and has detrimental effects on a wide range of species, including mammals, birds, anurans, fishes, and invertebrates (see reviews in [1,2,3,4,5,6]). We investigated the effects of repeated exposure to anthropogenic noise on male parental behaviour, and offspring growth and survival in a coral reef fish, the spiny chromis (Acanthochromis polyacanthus). Mucus is delivered via ‘glancing’ ( called ‘parent-touching’ or ‘contacting’ in other species); parents are relatively passive in this process, but do actively avoid offspring on some occasions. These three key parentalcare behaviours (guarding, feeding, and glancing) are all observed in A. polyacanthus in its natural habitat [27,28]. (iii) Do A. polyacanthus offspring at nests experiencing motorboat-noise playback suffer reduced growth or survival compared to control nests with playback of ambient reef sound? We collected data throughout the acoustic-exposure period to answer three main questions. (i) Is guarding, feeding, and glancing behaviour of broodguarding males negatively impacted by the addition of motorboat noise? (ii) Can an increased frequency of defensive acts by brood-guarding males be explained by changes in the prevalence or behaviour of other local species? (iii) Do A. polyacanthus offspring at nests experiencing motorboat-noise playback suffer reduced growth or survival compared to control nests with playback of ambient reef sound?
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