Abstract
The analysis of temporal trends and spatial patterns of marine sounds can provide crucial insights to assess the abundance, distribution, and behavior of fishes and of many other species. However, data on species-specific temporal and seasonal changes are still extremely limited. We report here the result of the longest recording ever conducted (five years, from 2014 to 2018) on fish vocalization. Findings from the Eastern Taiwan Strait (ETS) revealed a periodic fish chorusing pattern, with peaks in summer and almost complete silence, for ~2 months, during winter. Chorusing pattern was influenced by abiotic parameters, including temperature, tides and moon phase. We also report, for the first time, that extreme weather events (e.g., typhoons, storms with sediment resuspension) caused the cessation of the chorusing. The chorusing pattern explored in this long-term study provides important baseline data to understand the impact of climate change and of climate-driven extreme/episodic events on the phenology of fishes; this work also provides evidence that changes in the ambient conditions might significantly alter the phenology of vocalizing marine species.
Highlights
Similar to other vertebrate and invertebrate terrestrial taxa, fishes are known to produce a variety of sounds
These studies are frequently based on short-term datasets, which hampers the possibility of under standing the boundaries of the natural variability of the acoustic pat terns (Buscaino, 2016; McWilliam, 2018) or assessing eventual shifts in fish acoustic activity caused by specific events (Morisette, 2009)
The study area was selected off the Eastern Taiwan Strait in the Changhua region because this region was influenced by seasonal tem perature fluctuations, severe tropical storms, high wind speeds, sedi ment transportation, and abnormal turbidity due to flooding, all of which can be used to identify the abiotic factors interacting with fish vocalization
Summary
Similar to other vertebrate and invertebrate terrestrial taxa, fishes are known to produce a variety of sounds. Previous studies have shown fish cho ruses to exhibit periodicity based on several abiotic factors, such as lunar patterns, time of dawn and sunset, season, temperature, and salinity (McCauley, 2012; Halliday, 2017; McWilliam, 2017; Helfman, 1986; Ruppe, 2015; Rice et al, 2017) These studies are frequently based on short-term datasets, which hampers the possibility of under standing the boundaries of the natural variability of the acoustic pat terns (Buscaino, 2016; McWilliam, 2018) or assessing eventual shifts in fish acoustic activity caused by specific events (Morisette, 2009). We compare the intensity and temporal distribution of fish chorusing to provide the benchmark of the soundscape of the area, identify the fac tors controlling fish vocalization, and assess the influence of different climate-driven events on fish chorusing, which are predicted to be exacerbated as a result of ongoing climate changes
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