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The Fishy Acoustics of Coral Reefs

By: Aleah Gonzalez

Schematic illustration showing acoustically mediated degradation feedback (red) and acoustically mediated recovery (blue). Gordon. 2019. 

    Coral reefs have many positive environmental impacts within the environments in which they can be found. One of the most important functions of coral reefs is to provide a habitat for many different organisms such as populations of fish. To date, climate change and local anthropogenic stressors, mostly those caused by humans, have been negatively impacting coral reefs globally. An interesting factor within the research conducted is the use of acoustics. One way in which the negative impacts brought upon coral reefs can be reversed is through the application of healthy fish populations within the damaged coral reefs through practices such as acoustic enrichment, which is a unique technique for attracting fish in hopes of rebuilding damaged coral reefs. The unique use of loudspeakers to project healthy acoustics on Australia’s northern Great Barrier Reef was used in the comparison between acoustically enriched reefs, and unmanipulated control reefs (consisting of reefs with dummy loudspeakers and without dummy loudspeakers respectively). The results of the study conducted showed positive impacts of coral reef regeneration due to acoustic enrichment within the acoustically enriched reefs, which recruited damselfish at a higher rate, compared to the acoustically unmanipulated reefs observed within the study. The positive impact of acoustics in helping rebuild coral reefs through the recruitment of populations of fish advances environmental stability by allowing for the regeneration of the coral reefs, that not only provides habitat as a trade-off to many organisms but protection and a natural barrier to coastal lines which would be affected without coral reefs present.

References

Gordon, T.A.C., A.N. Radford, I.K. Davidson. et al. 2019. Acoustic enrichment can enhance fish community development on degraded coral reef habitat. Nat. Commun. 10, 5414. 

Comments

  1. J SalinasSeptember 14, 2020 at 9:14 PM

    I'm glad to hear the implementation of acoustics can be used in such a unique way, and prompts a few questions about its application in other locations. Is there an optimal level at which it can be played in relation to the depth? i.e. 2000 m below sea level with volume A, as opposed to 500 m below sea level with volume B? I'm curious to know what other locations can have their corals reinvigorated.

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  2. Jacinda SolisSeptember 21, 2020 at 11:48 PM

    Oh wow, I didn't know acoustics could be used to attract fish to reverse the coral reefs health. I know when coral reefs have been affected by pollution they become white "bleaching " but aren't considered dead, then it'd take awhile for them to function properly. I question what kind of acoustics they use, like is there a certain beat that coral reefs regenerate better to, whether that be an upbeat rhythmic tune or maybe a slow mellow wave. Another inquiry, I wonder what else in the environment would improve if they also used an acoustic and for what specifically.

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  3. Jose T. RodriguezSeptember 24, 2020 at 5:57 PM

    This is a very interesting approach to enrich and rebuild a coral reef. This makes me wonder whether it can be applied to other areas of the ocean to try and encourage growth there as well, such as in a kelp forest. Since kelp forests are also a crucial part of the ocean, it would benefit us also to have them grow plentiful. It makes me ask if there are methods that could be combined with the acoustics to encourage growth even further?

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  4. M MendezOctober 21, 2020 at 4:29 PM

    This really surprised me. I never thought it could come down to something like acoustics - an abiotic factor we really don't think about too often. We generally just think about the reef itself, but it would make sense that there needs to be an attractant to restore the community beyond the coral. Great find!

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