• From 'boops' to 'unks,' how scientists a

    From ScienceDaily@1:317/3 to All on Wed Mar 2 21:30:46 2022
    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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