Soundscapes influence the settlement of the common Caribbean coral Porites astreoides irrespective of light conditions
Name
rsos.181358.pdf
Size
5.59 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
04e0a47509ed79702eefb6b67b9bb6c5
Author(s)
Lillis, Ashlee
Apprill, Amy
Suca, Justin J.
Becker, Cynthia
Llopiz, Joel K.
Mooney, T. Aran
Date Issued
December 2018
Journal
Royal Society Open Science
Publisher
The Royal Society
Citation
Lillis, Ashlee et al. "Soundscapes influence the settlement of the common Caribbean coral Porites astreoides irrespective of light conditions." Royal Society Open Science 5,12 (December 2018): 181358 © 2018 The Authors.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
The settlement of reef-building corals is critical to the survival and recovery of reefs. Recent evidence indicates that coral larvae orient towards reef sound, yet the components of the acoustic environment that may attract coral larvae and induce settlement are unknown. Here we investigated the effects of ambient soundscapes on settlement of Porites astreoides coral larvae using in situ chambers on reefs differing in habitat quality (coral and fish abundance). Mean larval settlement was twice as high in an acoustic environment with high levels of low-frequency sounds, typical of a high-quality, healthy reef; this result was observed in both natural light and dark treatments. Overall, the enhancement of coral settlement by soundscapes typical of healthy reefs suggests a positive feedback where soundscape properties of reefs with elevated coral and fish abundance may facilitate coral recruitment. Keywords: coral; acoustics; soundscape; larvae; settlement
MIT Department
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.181358
