From 'boops' to 'unks,' how scientists are using fish sounds to conserve underwater ecosystems
FishSounds.net is the first online, interactive library for the sounds
fish make when communicating or interacting with their environment.
Date:
March 2, 2022
Source:
University of Florida
Summary:
FishSounds.net is the first online, interactive library for the
sounds fish make when communicating or interacting with their
environment. Fish sounds provide scientists valuable data for
studying and conserving underwater ecosystems. An accompanying
review study found that just under a 1,000 fish make sounds for
communication, though this is likely an underestimate.
FULL STORY ==========================================================================
Cows moo. Wolves howl. Birds tweet. And fish, it turns out, also make
quite a ruckus.
========================================================================== "People are often surprised to learn that fish make sounds," said Audrey
Looby, a doctoral candidate at the University of Florida. "But you could
make the case that they are as important for understanding fish as bird
sounds are for studying birds." The sounds of many animals are well documented. Go online, and you'll find plenty of resources for bird
calls and whale songs. However, a global library for fish sounds used
to be unheard of.
That's why Looby, University of Victoria collaborator Kieran Cox and
an international team of researchers created FishSounds.net, the first
online, interactive fish sounds repository of its kind.
Site visitors can browse audio files, sound visualizations and more. Fish sounds are organized by species and sound name. Select the "boop" sound
name, and you can listen to recordings of the Bocon toadfish, which also happens to be a close relative of the fish Looby is researching for her dissertation while based at the UF/IFAS Nature Coast Biological Station
in Cedar Key, Florida.
"There's no standard system yet for naming fish sounds, so our project
uses the sound names researchers have come up with," Looby said. "And
who doesn't love a fish that boops?" The library's creators hope to
add a feature that will allow people to submit their own fish sound
recordings. Other interactive features, such as a world map with clickable
fish sound data points, are also in the works.
==========================================================================
Fish make sound in many ways. Some, like the toadfish, have evolved
organs or other structures in their bodies that produce what scientists
call active sounds. Other fish produce incidental or passive sounds,
like chewing or splashing, but even passive sounds can still convey information.
Scientists think fish evolved to make sound because sound is an effective
way to communicate underwater. Sound travels faster under water than it
does through air, and in low visibility settings, it ensures the message
still reaches an audience.
"Fish sounds contain a lot of important information," said Looby, who is pursuing a doctorate in fisheries and aquatic sciences at the UF/IFAS
College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. "Fish may communicate about territory, predators, food and reproduction. And when we can match
fish sounds to fish species, their sounds are a kind of calling card
that can tell us what kinds of fish are in an area and what they are
doing." Knowing the location and movements of fish species is critical
for environmental monitoring, fisheries management and conservation
efforts. In the future, marine, estuarine or freshwater ecologists could
use hydrophones - - special underwater microphones -- to gather data
on fish species' whereabouts. But first, they will need to be able to
identify which fish they are hearing, and that's where the fish sounds
database can assist.
FishSounds.net emerged from the research team's efforts to gather and
review the existing scientific literature on fish sounds. An article synthesizing that literature has just been published in Reviews in Fish
Biology and Fisheries.
In the article, the researchers reviewed scientific reports of fish
sounds going back almost 150 years. They found that a little under
a thousand fish species are known to make active sounds, and several
hundred species were studied for their passive sounds. However, these
are probably both underestimates, Cox explained.
"There are probably a lot of fish sounds that just haven't been recorded.
That's why we'll continue to review new studies coming out and add to
the repository. This is truly is an international and global project
with much more to come," Cox said.
========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Florida. Original
written by Samantha Murray. Note: Content may be edited for style
and length.
========================================================================== Related Multimedia:
* Images_of_fish ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. C. Boettiger, D. T. Lang, P. C. Wainwright. rfishbase: exploring,
manipulating and visualizing FishBase data from R. Journal of Fish
Biology, 2012; 81 (6): 2030 DOI: 10.1111/j.1095-8649.2012.03464.x ==========================================================================
Link to news story:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/03/220302154749.htm
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