Boat noise does not alter metabolic performance of a newly settled coral reef fish

Oxygen uptake rates of P. amboinensis juveniles exposed to playback of ambient coral reef sound, or playback of a boat with a 30hp two stroke engine driving at 10-200 m.

Extract [Thesis: Chapter 3Jain-Schaepfer, Sofia (2018) The effect of motorboat noise on early life stages of coral reef fishes. Masters (Research) thesis, James Cook University.] Boat noise is increasing dramatically worldwide and has been found to have detrimental effects on fishes. It is therefore important to develop tools to measure the circumstances under which fishes are affected by boat noise. Measuring whole organism oxygen uptake rates as a proxy for metabolic rates can be a useful way of quantifying stress and its associated energetic costs. I demonstrate that a single small submersible pump often used in respirometry systems can expose fish to noise levels comparable to boat noise. Therefore, I designed and used a pumpless, noiseless aquatic intermittent-flow respirometry system to monitor changes in oxygen uptake rates of juvenile damselfish exposed to either the noise from an outboard power boat or natural ambient conditions. No significant change in oxygen uptake rates were detected in newly settled Pomacentrus amboinensis in response to the playback of boat noise. This suggests there is either no stress response occurring or no immediate energetic cost to the fish in response to the boat noise playback. The respirometry system designed in this study is valuable to future respirometry studies as it eliminates pump noise as a secondary unintentional stressor.

 

The full methodology is available in the Open Access thesis (Chapter 3) from the Related Publications link below.

    Data Record Details
    Data record related to this publication Boat noise does not alter metabolic performance of a newly settled coral reef fish
    Data Publication title Boat noise does not alter metabolic performance of a newly settled coral reef fish
  • Description

    Oxygen uptake rates of P. amboinensis juveniles exposed to playback of ambient coral reef sound, or playback of a boat with a 30hp two stroke engine driving at 10-200 m.

    Extract [Thesis: Chapter 3Jain-Schaepfer, Sofia (2018) The effect of motorboat noise on early life stages of coral reef fishes. Masters (Research) thesis, James Cook University.] Boat noise is increasing dramatically worldwide and has been found to have detrimental effects on fishes. It is therefore important to develop tools to measure the circumstances under which fishes are affected by boat noise. Measuring whole organism oxygen uptake rates as a proxy for metabolic rates can be a useful way of quantifying stress and its associated energetic costs. I demonstrate that a single small submersible pump often used in respirometry systems can expose fish to noise levels comparable to boat noise. Therefore, I designed and used a pumpless, noiseless aquatic intermittent-flow respirometry system to monitor changes in oxygen uptake rates of juvenile damselfish exposed to either the noise from an outboard power boat or natural ambient conditions. No significant change in oxygen uptake rates were detected in newly settled Pomacentrus amboinensis in response to the playback of boat noise. This suggests there is either no stress response occurring or no immediate energetic cost to the fish in response to the boat noise playback. The respirometry system designed in this study is valuable to future respirometry studies as it eliminates pump noise as a secondary unintentional stressor.

     

    The full methodology is available in the Open Access thesis (Chapter 3) from the Related Publications link below.

  • Other Descriptors
    • Descriptor

      This dataset is available as a spreadsheet in MS Excel (.xlsx) and Open Document formats (.ods)

    • Descriptor type Full
  • Data type dataset
  • Keywords
    • stress
    • noise pollution
    • fishes
    • ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies
  • Funding source
    • ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies
  • Research grant(s)/Scheme name(s)
  • Research themes
    Tropical Ecosystems, Conservation and Climate Change
    FoR Codes (*)
    SEO Codes
    Specify spatial or temporal setting of the data
    Temporal (time) coverage
  • Start Date 2016/11/01
  • End Date 2016/12/30
  • Time Period
    Spatial (location) coverage
  • Locations
    • Lizard Island, northern Great Barrier Reef, Australia (14°41′S, 145°27′E)
    Data Locations

    Type Location Notes
    Attachment resp_long.ods Open Document (.ods) format
    Attachment resp_long.xlsx MS Excel (.xlsx) format
    The Data Manager is: Sofia Jain-Schlaepfer
    College or Centre
    Access conditions Open: free access under license
  • Alternative access conditions
  • Data record size
  • Related publications
      Name Jain-Schaepfer, Sofia (2018) The effect of motorboat noise on early life stages of coral reef fishes. Masters (Research) thesis, James Cook University.
    • URL https://doi.org/10.25903/hp6m-w117
    • Notes See data chapter 3
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    • Notes
    Citation Jain-Schlaepfer, Sofia; McCormick, Mark; Rummer, Jodie (2018): Boat noise does not alter metabolic performance of a newly settled coral reef fish. James Cook University. https://doi.org/10.25903/5b43e67fed232