Sound features and vocal rhythms as a proxy for locating the spawning ground of<scp><i>Sciaena umbra</i></scp>in the wild

Picciulin, Marta; Fiorin, Riccardo; Facca, Chiara; Malavasi, Stefano

doi:10.1002/aqc.3340

Cited by 20 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…Pereira et al (2020) found that Q3 frequency is dependent on individual size [ 42 ]; fish at HCMR were bigger than fish at IPMA, which may explain this statistical significance. When it comes to temporal features, Bolgan et al [ 43 ] showed that meagre sound duration, number of pulses and pulse period are influenced by spawning motivation; this is in accordance with what was found in other Sciaenidae species, in aquaculture as well as at sea [ 43 , 65 – 67 ]. At HCMR, spawning was artificially induced by injecting gonadotropin releasing hormone agonist (GnRHa), while fish at IPMA spawned naturally.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 71%

Vocal repertoire and consistency of call features in the meagre Argyrosomous regius (Asso, 1801)

et al. 2020

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Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) is a non-intrusive and cost-effective method capable of providing high-resolution, long-term information on the status and health of vocal populations and communities. To successfully monitor the same species over wide geographical and temporal scales, it is necessary to characterise the range of sound variability, as well as the consistency of sound features between populations. The meagre (Argyrosomus regius, Asso 1801) is an interesting case study because recent investigations suggest a wider vocal repertoire than previously described. In this study, meagre vocalizations were recorded and analysed from a variety of settings, ranging from rearing facilities to wild populations to provide a comprehensive characterisation of its vocal repertoire, while investigating the consistency of spawning sound features between populations. All sounds presented a similar acoustic structure in their basic unit (i.e. the pulse), while an important variability was found in the number of pulses; the meagre can emit sounds made of one single pulse or many pulses (up to more than 100). High level of overlap in the Principal Component Analysis made difficult to differentiate sound type clusters. Despite this, two sound types were identifiable: knocks (sounds from 1 to 3 pulses) and long grunts (sounds with more than 29 pulses). Discriminant Analysis carried out on PCA residuals showed that knock had the highest proportion of correct placement (92% of the observations correctly placed) followed by long grunts (80%). All other previously described sound types (intermediate grunt, short grunt and disturbance sounds) could not be separated and presented low levels of correct placement, suggesting that care should be taken when defining these as independent sound types. Finally, acoustic features consistency was found in meagre grunts emitted by different populations during spawning nights; statistical differences could be explained by recording settings and fish conditions. The results of this study provide important information for fostering PAM programs of wild meagre populations, while contributing to the discussion around the definition of fish sound types in vocal fish communities. Studies of this kind, which evaluate both variability and consistency of sound features, are of fundamental importance for maximising PAM efforts in the wild, at both the specific and the community level.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 71%

Vocal repertoire and consistency of call features in the meagre Argyrosomous regius (Asso, 1801)

et al. 2020

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“…16-27 ms (Picciulin et al, 2012;Parmentier et al, 2018). All of these features have been proved to be consistent over space and time, despite the fact that intra-specific variation depends on context, size and motivation or the influence of recording settings and conditions (Parmentier et al, 2018;Picciulin et al, 2020).…”

Section: Sounds Characterization Detection and Discriminationmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…At sea the FSAs of vocal species can generate intense choruses that greatly exceed local ambient noise levels (Parsons et al, 2016;Rice, Soldevilla & Quinlan, 2017). Fish choruses have been used as proxies to determine the timing and location of spawning aggregations, as well as for evaluating species distributions and essential habitats (Luczkovich et al, 2008;Tellechea et al, 2010b;Rice, Soldevilla & Quinlan, 2017;Monczak et al, 2019;Picciulin et al, 2020). Furthermore, the sound level of fish choruses provides insights into fish population abundances (Rowell et al, 2012;Rowell et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In aquaculture facilities, shi drum calls are emitted at significantly higher rates during spawning nights, when temporal features can provide information on the onset of reproduction (Bolgan et al, 2020a). In contrast, the presence of the brown meagre has been widely monitored by PAM in several coastal areas of the Mediterranean Sea (Bonacito et al, 2002;Picciulin et al, 2013;Colla et al, 2018;Parmentier et al, 2018;Desiderà et al, 2019;Di Iorio et al, 2020), where choruses provide a reliable natural indicator of this species' breeding sites (Picciulin et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The range of inter-specific temporal variability is particularly limited, with the mean number of pulses generally below five pulses per sound in both species (Picciulin et al, 2013;Lagardère & Parmentier, 2014;Picciulin et al, 2016). As intraspecific variability in temporal features is present in both species and is linked to behavioural motivation (Bolgan et al, 2020a;Picciulin et al, 2020), the discrimination of species-specific sounds at sea is further complicated. In order to successfully monitor the occurrence of these two sympatric species by using PAM, it is therefore imperative to identify a combination of acoustic features which can unequivocally discriminate inter-specific from intra-specific sound variability.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sound discrimination of two sympatric, threatened fish species allows for their in situ mapping

Picciulin

Bolgan

Facca

et al. 2021

Aquatic Conservation

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1. Human impacts on marine ecosystems are increasing and the number of fish species listed in the Red List is constantly growing. In the Mediterranean Sea, seven of the 10 bony fishes defined as Threatened by the IUCN are known to be vocal, including the target species of this study: the shi drum (Umbrina cirrosa Linnaeus, 1758) and the brown meagre (Sciaena umbra Linnaeus, 1758). As a result, non-invasive passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) can be used to pinpoint their distribution at sea. However, for PAM to be effective, reliable acoustic discrimination is required because the sounds they emit during reproduction are remarkably similar (i.e. short broadband pulsed sounds).2. The shi drum and the brown meagre are closely related, elusive, vocal sciaenids, partially overlapping in their ecological niche. During summer 2019, three PAM surveys were conducted along the tidal inlets of the Venice lagoon (Italy). Here, the calls of both species have been recognized according to their temporal features: shi drum sounds were made up of a lower number of longer pulses with a different envelope, repeated at a lower rate than those of the brown meagre. Further, shi drum and brown meagre sounds of different origins (aquaculture and semi-natural conditions) were analysed and compared with those collected during the survey of the study area in order to validate the field collected data.3. Call discrimination allowed for a fine-scale species mapping, showing a partially overlapping distribution of the two species along the inlets. This is the first case in which two sciaenids have been documented to share their reproductive habitat in the Mediterranean Sea.4. This study demonstrates that it is feasible to acoustically monitor the target species even in those parts of the Mediterranean Sea where they co-exist. This, in its turn, could provide managers with the required data for effective conservation measures to be implemented.

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Fish acoustic community structure in Neptune seagrass meadows across the Mediterranean basin

Bolgan

Iorio²,

Dailianis

et al. 2022

Aquatic Conservation

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Sound production represents an integral part of social communication in many teleost fish; however, few studies have investigated the structure, organization and variability of fish sounds at the community level. Fish acoustic community structure was recorded simultaneously in three sites located along the Mediterranean basin within the endemic habitat of Posidonia oceanica seagrass beds. Acoustic diversity and species‐specific sound features were expected to differ between locations. We predicted that, in communities characterized by higher acoustic richness, fish species would specialize in their use of acoustic resources (i.e. realized acoustic niche compression), while the overall allocation of resources within the community signal space would expand. The fish acoustic communities inhabiting Posidonia beds were characterized by the same main contributors (the /Kwa/, Ophidion rochei and Sciaena umbra sound types). However, their relative occurrence, abundances and use of acoustic resources were site‐specific. Acoustic diversity differed between geographic locations. The range of spectral and temporal resources exploited by the fish acoustic community was wider in sites where acoustic richness was at its highest score. Ophidion rochei was highly specialized in its use of temporal resources where acoustic richness was higher, whilst S. umbra appeared less efficient in specializing the use of spectral and temporal resources. By showing that the same species can exploit different acoustic resources between locations, this study supports the concept of Acoustic Niche plasticity (i.e. plasticity of acoustic resources allocation within a species). The results suggest that the degree of acoustic niche plasticity might be determined by the species‐specific degree of sound‐producing system plasticity. In turn, different degrees of acoustic niche plasticity might determine different species‐specific levels of acoustic adaptability to changing biotic or environmental conditions.

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Sound features and vocal rhythms as a proxy for locating the spawning ground ofSciaena umbrain the wild

Cited by 20 publications

References 66 publications

Vocal repertoire and consistency of call features in the meagre Argyrosomous regius (Asso, 1801)

Vocal repertoire and consistency of call features in the meagre Argyrosomous regius (Asso, 1801)

Sound discrimination of two sympatric, threatened fish species allows for their in situ mapping

Fish acoustic community structure in Neptune seagrass meadows across the Mediterranean basin

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