Patterns of biophonic periodicity on coral reefs in the Great Barrier Reef

© 2017 The Author(s). The coral reefs surrounding Lizard Island in the Great Barrier Reef have a diverse soundscape that contains an array of bioacoustic phenomena, notably choruses produced by fishes. Six fish choruses identified around Lizard Island exhibited distinctive spatial and temporal patte...

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Main Authors: McWilliam, Jamie, McCauley, Robert, Erbe, Christine, Parsons, Miles
Format: Journal Article
Published: Nature Publishing Group 2017
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/62104
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author McWilliam, Jamie
McCauley, Robert
Erbe, Christine
Parsons, Miles
author_facet McWilliam, Jamie
McCauley, Robert
Erbe, Christine
Parsons, Miles
author_sort McWilliam, Jamie
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description © 2017 The Author(s). The coral reefs surrounding Lizard Island in the Great Barrier Reef have a diverse soundscape that contains an array of bioacoustic phenomena, notably choruses produced by fishes. Six fish choruses identified around Lizard Island exhibited distinctive spatial and temporal patterns from 2014 to 2016. Several choruses displayed site fidelity, indicating that particular sites may represent important habitat for fish species, such as fish spawning aggregations sites. The choruses displayed a broad range of periodicities, from diel to annual, which provides new insights into the ecology of vocalising reef fish species and the surrounding ecosystem. All choruses were affected by one or more environmental variables including temperature and moonlight, the latter of which had a significant influence on the timing and received sound levels. These findings highlight the utility of passive acoustic tools for long-Term monitoring and management of coral reefs, which is highly relevant in light of recent global disturbance events, particularly coral bleaching.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-621042018-10-12T07:42:57Z Patterns of biophonic periodicity on coral reefs in the Great Barrier Reef McWilliam, Jamie McCauley, Robert Erbe, Christine Parsons, Miles © 2017 The Author(s). The coral reefs surrounding Lizard Island in the Great Barrier Reef have a diverse soundscape that contains an array of bioacoustic phenomena, notably choruses produced by fishes. Six fish choruses identified around Lizard Island exhibited distinctive spatial and temporal patterns from 2014 to 2016. Several choruses displayed site fidelity, indicating that particular sites may represent important habitat for fish species, such as fish spawning aggregations sites. The choruses displayed a broad range of periodicities, from diel to annual, which provides new insights into the ecology of vocalising reef fish species and the surrounding ecosystem. All choruses were affected by one or more environmental variables including temperature and moonlight, the latter of which had a significant influence on the timing and received sound levels. These findings highlight the utility of passive acoustic tools for long-Term monitoring and management of coral reefs, which is highly relevant in light of recent global disturbance events, particularly coral bleaching. 2017 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/62104 10.1038/s41598-017-15838-z http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Nature Publishing Group fulltext
spellingShingle McWilliam, Jamie
McCauley, Robert
Erbe, Christine
Parsons, Miles
Patterns of biophonic periodicity on coral reefs in the Great Barrier Reef
title Patterns of biophonic periodicity on coral reefs in the Great Barrier Reef
title_full Patterns of biophonic periodicity on coral reefs in the Great Barrier Reef
title_fullStr Patterns of biophonic periodicity on coral reefs in the Great Barrier Reef
title_full_unstemmed Patterns of biophonic periodicity on coral reefs in the Great Barrier Reef
title_short Patterns of biophonic periodicity on coral reefs in the Great Barrier Reef
title_sort patterns of biophonic periodicity on coral reefs in the great barrier reef
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/62104