Courtship Sounds Advertise Species Identity and Male Quality in Sympatric Pomatoschistus spp. Gobies
Acoustic signals can encode crucial information about species identity and individual quality. We recorded and compared male courtship drum sounds of the sand goby Pomatoschistus minutus and the painted goby P. pictus and examined if they can function in species recognition within sympatric populati...
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| Format: | Online |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science
2013
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| Online Access: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3674009/ |
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pubmed-36740092013-06-10 Courtship Sounds Advertise Species Identity and Male Quality in Sympatric Pomatoschistus spp. Gobies Pedroso, Silvia S. Barber, Iain Svensson, Ola Fonseca, Paulo J. Amorim, Maria Clara P. Research Article Acoustic signals can encode crucial information about species identity and individual quality. We recorded and compared male courtship drum sounds of the sand goby Pomatoschistus minutus and the painted goby P. pictus and examined if they can function in species recognition within sympatric populations. We also examined which acoustic features are related to male quality and the factors that affect female courtship in the sand goby, to determine whether vocalisations potentially play a role in mate assessment. Drums produced by the painted goby showed significantly higher dominant frequencies, higher sound pulse repetition rates and longer intervals between sounds than those of the sand goby. In the sand goby, male quality was predicted by visual and acoustic courtship signals. Regression analyses showed that sound amplitude was a good predictor of male length, whereas the duration of nest behaviour and active calling rate (i.e. excluding silent periods) were good predictors of male condition factor and fat reserves respectively. In addition, the level of female courtship was predicted by male nest behaviour. The results suggest that the frequency and temporal patterns of sounds can encode species identity, whereas sound amplitude and calling activity reflects male size and fat reserves. Visual courtship duration (nest-related behaviour) also seems relevant to mate choice, since it reflects male condition and is related to female courtship. Our work suggests that acoustic communication can contribute to mate choice in the sand goby group, and invites further study. Public Library of Science 2013-06-05 /pmc/articles/PMC3674009/ /pubmed/23755129 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0064620 Text en © 2013 Pedroso et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited. |
| repository_type |
Open Access Journal |
| institution_category |
Foreign Institution |
| institution |
US National Center for Biotechnology Information |
| building |
NCBI PubMed |
| collection |
Online Access |
| language |
English |
| format |
Online |
| author |
Pedroso, Silvia S. Barber, Iain Svensson, Ola Fonseca, Paulo J. Amorim, Maria Clara P. |
| spellingShingle |
Pedroso, Silvia S. Barber, Iain Svensson, Ola Fonseca, Paulo J. Amorim, Maria Clara P. Courtship Sounds Advertise Species Identity and Male Quality in Sympatric Pomatoschistus spp. Gobies |
| author_facet |
Pedroso, Silvia S. Barber, Iain Svensson, Ola Fonseca, Paulo J. Amorim, Maria Clara P. |
| author_sort |
Pedroso, Silvia S. |
| title |
Courtship Sounds Advertise Species Identity and Male Quality in Sympatric Pomatoschistus spp. Gobies |
| title_short |
Courtship Sounds Advertise Species Identity and Male Quality in Sympatric Pomatoschistus spp. Gobies |
| title_full |
Courtship Sounds Advertise Species Identity and Male Quality in Sympatric Pomatoschistus spp. Gobies |
| title_fullStr |
Courtship Sounds Advertise Species Identity and Male Quality in Sympatric Pomatoschistus spp. Gobies |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Courtship Sounds Advertise Species Identity and Male Quality in Sympatric Pomatoschistus spp. Gobies |
| title_sort |
courtship sounds advertise species identity and male quality in sympatric pomatoschistus spp. gobies |
| description |
Acoustic signals can encode crucial information about species identity and individual quality. We recorded and compared male courtship drum sounds of the sand goby Pomatoschistus minutus and the painted goby P. pictus and examined if they can function in species recognition within sympatric populations. We also examined which acoustic features are related to male quality and the factors that affect female courtship in the sand goby, to determine whether vocalisations potentially play a role in mate assessment. Drums produced by the painted goby showed significantly higher dominant frequencies, higher sound pulse repetition rates and longer intervals between sounds than those of the sand goby. In the sand goby, male quality was predicted by visual and acoustic courtship signals. Regression analyses showed that sound amplitude was a good predictor of male length, whereas the duration of nest behaviour and active calling rate (i.e. excluding silent periods) were good predictors of male condition factor and fat reserves respectively. In addition, the level of female courtship was predicted by male nest behaviour. The results suggest that the frequency and temporal patterns of sounds can encode species identity, whereas sound amplitude and calling activity reflects male size and fat reserves. Visual courtship duration (nest-related behaviour) also seems relevant to mate choice, since it reflects male condition and is related to female courtship. Our work suggests that acoustic communication can contribute to mate choice in the sand goby group, and invites further study. |
| publisher |
Public Library of Science |
| publishDate |
2013 |
| url |
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3674009/ |
| _version_ |
1611984108116770816 |