Group personality, rather than acoustic noise, causes variation in group decision-making in guppy shoals.

Group living has essential fitness benefits for many species. While numerous studies have explored how environmental conditions impact collective movement, their impact on decisions made in a social context-a central component of group-living-is poorly documented. In this study, we assess how acoustic noise impacts group decision-making, cohesion and activity in fish shoals, using Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata) as a model species.

Unlocking the soundscape of coral reefs with artificial intelligence: pretrained networks and unsupervised learning win out.

Passive acoustic monitoring can offer insights into the state of coral reef ecosystems at low-costs and over extended temporal periods. Comparison of whole soundscape properties can rapidly deliver broad insights from acoustic data, in contrast to detailed but time-consuming analysis of individual bioacoustic events. However, a lack of effective automated analysis for whole soundscape data has impeded progress in this field.

Artificial Light Increases Nighttime Prevalence of Predatory Fishes, Altering Community Composition on Coral Reefs.

Artificial light at night (ALAN) is an anthropogenic pollutant that is intensifying and expanding in marine environments, but experimental studies of community-level effects are generally lacking. The inshore, shallow, and clear-water locations of coral reefs and their diverse photosensitive inhabitants make these ecosystems highly susceptible to biological disturbances; at the same time, their biodiversity and accessibility make them model systems for wider insight. Here, we experimentally manipulated ALAN using underwater LED lights on a Polynesian reef system to investigate the influence on localised nighttime fish communities compared to control sites without ALAN.

Respiratory acidosis and O supply capacity do not affect the acute temperature tolerance of rainbow trout ().

The mechanisms that determine the temperature tolerances of fish are poorly understood, creating barriers to disentangle how additional environmental challenges-such as CO-induced aquatic acidification and fluctuating oxygen availability-may exacerbate vulnerability to a warming climate and extreme heat events. Here, we explored whether two acute exposures (~0.5 hours or ~72 hours) to increased CO impact acute temperature tolerance limits in a freshwater fish, rainbow trout ().

Context-dependent multimodal behaviour in a coral reef fish.

Animals are expected to respond flexibly to changing circumstances, with multimodal signalling providing potential plasticity in social interactions. While numerous studies have documented context-dependent behavioural trade-offs in terrestrial species, far less work has considered such decision-making in fish, especially in natural conditions. Coral reef ecosystems host 25% of all known marine species, making them hotbeds of competition and predation.

Predatory trumpetfish conceal themselves from their prey by swimming alongside other fish.

Many animals use camouflage to avoid detection by others, yet even the most inconspicuous objects become detectable against the background when moving. One way to reduce detection while moving would be to 'hide' behind the movements of objects or other animals. Here, we demonstrate experimentally that a common marine predator, the trumpetfish (Aulostomus maculatus), can conceal its approach from its prey by performing a behaviour known as 'shadowing' - swimming closely next to another, larger and non-predatory fish.

Limiting motorboat noise on coral reefs boosts fish reproductive success.

Anthropogenic noise impacts are pervasive across taxa, ecosystems and the world. Here, we experimentally test the hypothesis that protecting vulnerable habitats from noise pollution can improve animal reproductive success. Using a season-long field manipulation with an established model system on the Great Barrier Reef, we demonstrate that limiting motorboat activity on reefs leads to the survival of more fish offspring compared to reefs experiencing busy motorboat traffic.

Uptake of microplastics by the snakelocks anemone (Anemonia viridis) is commonplace across environmental conditions.

Microplastics (<1 mm) are ubiquitous in our oceans and widely acknowledged as concerning contaminants due to the multi-faceted threats they exert on marine organisms and ecosystems. Anthozoans, including sea anemones and corals, are particularly at risk of microplastic uptake due to their proximity to the coastline, non-selective feeding mechanisms and sedentary nature. Here, the common snakelocks anemone (Anemonia viridis) was used to generate understanding of microplastic uptake in the relatively understudied Anthozoa class.

Rapid blood acid-base regulation by European sea bass (Dicentrarchus labrax) in response to sudden exposure to high environmental CO2.

Fish in coastal ecosystems can be exposed to acute variations in CO2 of between 0.2 and 1 kPa CO2 (2000-10,000 µatm). Coping with this environmental challenge will depend on the ability to rapidly compensate for the internal acid-base disturbance caused by sudden exposure to high environmental CO2 (blood and tissue acidosis); however, studies about the speed of acid-base regulatory responses in marine fish are scarce.

The soundscape of the Anthropocene ocean.

Oceans have become substantially noisier since the Industrial Revolution. Shipping, resource exploration, and infrastructure development have increased the anthrophony (sounds generated by human activities), whereas the biophony (sounds of biological origin) has been reduced by hunting, fishing, and habitat degradation. Climate change is affecting geophony (abiotic, natural sounds).

Assessing and mitigating impacts of motorboat noise on nesting damselfish.

Motorboats are a pervasive, growing source of anthropogenic noise in marine environments, with known impacts on fish physiology and behaviour. However, empirical evidence for the disruption of parental care remains scarce and stems predominantly from playback studies. Additionally, there is a paucity of experimental studies examining noise-mitigation strategies.

Hormonal and behavioural effects of motorboat noise on wild coral reef fish.

Anthropogenic noise is an emergent ecological pollutant in both terrestrial and aquatic habitats. Human population growth, urbanisation, resource extraction, transport and motorised recreation lead to elevated noise that affects animal behaviour and physiology, impacting individual fitness. Currently, we have a poor mechanistic understanding of the effects of anthropogenic noise, but a likely candidate is the neuroendocrine system that integrates information about environmental stressors to produce regulatory hormones; glucocorticoids (GCs) and androgens enable rapid individual phenotypic adjustments that can increase survival.

Can we project changes in fish abundance and distribution in response to climate?

Large-scale and long-term changes in fish abundance and distribution in response to climate change have been simulated using both statistical and process-based models. However, national and regional fisheries management requires also shorter term projections on smaller spatial scales, and these need to be validated against fisheries data. A 26-year time series of fish surveys with high spatial resolution in the North-East Atlantic provides a unique opportunity to assess the ability of models to correctly simulate the changes in fish distribution and abundance that occurred in response to climate variability and change.

Acoustic enrichment can enhance fish community development on degraded coral reef habitat.

Coral reefs worldwide are increasingly damaged by anthropogenic stressors, necessitating novel approaches for their management. Maintaining healthy fish communities counteracts reef degradation, but degraded reefs smell and sound less attractive to settlement-stage fishes than their healthy states. Here, using a six-week field experiment, we demonstrate that playback of healthy reef sound can increase fish settlement and retention to degraded habitat.

Causes and consequences of intraspecific variation in animal responses to anthropogenic noise.

Anthropogenic noise is a recognized global pollutant, affecting a wide range of nonhuman animals. However, most research considers only whether noise pollution has an impact, ignoring that individuals within a species or population exhibit substantial variation in responses to stress. Here, we first outline how intrinsic characteristics (e.

Rising CO enhances hypoxia tolerance in a marine fish.

Global environmental change is increasing hypoxia in aquatic ecosystems. During hypoxic events, bacterial respiration causes an increase in carbon dioxide (CO) while oxygen (O) declines. This is rarely accounted for when assessing hypoxia tolerances of aquatic organisms.

A novel CRISPR/Cas9 associated technology for sequence-specific nucleic acid enrichment.

Massively parallel sequencing technologies have made it possible to generate large quantities of sequence data. However, as research-associated information is transferred into clinical practice, cost and throughput constraints generally require sequence-specific targeted analyses. Therefore, sample enrichment methods have been developed to meet the needs of clinical sequencing applications.

Fish in habitats with higher motorboat disturbance show reduced sensitivity to motorboat noise.

Anthropogenic noise can negatively impact many taxa worldwide. It is possible that in noisy, high-disturbance environments, the range and severity of impacts could diminish over time, but the influence of previous disturbance remains untested in natural conditions. This study demonstrates the effects of motorboat noise on the physiology of an endemic cichlid fish in Lake Malawi.

Habitat degradation negatively affects auditory settlement behavior of coral reef fishes.

Coral reefs are increasingly degraded by climate-induced bleaching and storm damage. Reef recovery relies on recruitment of young fishes for the replenishment of functionally important taxa. Acoustic cues guide the orientation, habitat selection, and settlement of many fishes, but these processes may be impaired if degradation alters reef soundscapes.