The soundscape of a mussel farm: Biophony and man-made noise levels

Abstract

During the summer of 2015, four Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM)surveys were carried out over a\ud mussel farm in the Venetian (Italy) littoral zone at night-time hours. A qualitative and quantitative\ud analysis of the soundscape was carried out. The high frequencies component of the soundscape (i.e.\ud above 2 kHz) was dominated by snapping shrimps sounds, while the low frequency component (i.e.\ud below 2 kHz) was characterized by fish vocalization, mainly emitted by Sciaena umbra (Sciaenidae),\ud with less frequent occurrences emitted by Gobidae spp. S. umbra highest vocal activity was recorded\ud from June to August inside the mussel farm. The low frequency component of the soundscape was\ud dominated by boat noise; in particular, low frequency noise (i.e. below 4 kHz) emitted by commercial\ud ships and passenger cruises. The Acoustic Complexity Index (ACI) was found to increase concurrently\ud with the number of S. umbra vocalizations: ACI highest values corresponded with S. umbra chorus\ud recorded during July. The results of this study suggest that the mussel farm may function as a Fishery\ud Aggregated Device (FAD), where fish might utilize it for different ecosystem services. Despite this,\ud man-made noise was present in most of the acoustic samples, suggesting a potential impact on the local\ud fauna

Using passive acoustics to assess habitat selection by the brown meagre Sciaena umbra in a northern Adriatic Sea mussel farm

“…() and Picciulin et al . () for comparisons]. Although only one recording has been made above the tegnùe and therefore further studies are required, this paper confirms that the artificial structures act as a site of attraction for S. umbra , as previously suggested by Picciulin et al .…”

“…From this point of view, tegnùe areas are similar to the so called B‐zone of marine protected areas (William, ; Dempster et al, ). Moreover, the mussel farm has been shown to be affected by the noise generated by motor boats (Picciulin et al, ), showing a background noise level similar to that recorded at the tegnùe (M. Picciulin, unpubl. data), but less intense than that recorded along the Venice tidal inlets, which are characterized by large ship transits [see Bolgan et al .…”

“…The present paper describes the habitat preference of S. umbra within a mussel farm located on the west coast of the Adriatic Sea, Italy. A qualitative description of the presence of S. umbra has been recently reported (Picciulin et al, ) focusing on the analysis of the local soundscape, however a robust quantitative analysis of the vocal activity of the species in the area was missing. In the present paper, the data set collected during the same sampling sessions reported by Picciulin et al .…”

“…In the present paper, the data set collected during the same sampling sessions reported by Picciulin et al . (), was quantitatively analysed in order to investigate the habitat use by S. umbra .…”

“…In the present paper, the data set collected during the same sampling sessions reported by Picciulin et al (2016), was quantitatively analysed in order to investigate the habitat use by S. umbra. The study area was in an active mussel farm located on soft substratum ranging from 13 to 15 m deep in the northern Adriatic Sea (45 ∘ 27·075 ′ N; 12 ∘ 35·028 ′ E), in front of the city of Jesolo, Italy, and 1·5 nautical miles from the Sile Estuary (Fig.…”