Dissertation
Sound Investigation: Effects of noise on marine animals across trophic levels
Anthropogenic noise has been shown to affect marine animals in various ways, this may have fitness consequences at individual and population level. This thesis aims to increase insight into the quantification of sound-induced behavioural responses that are relevant to fitness, and into factors that modulate the responses.
- Author
- J. Hubert
- Date
- 09 September 2021
- Links
- Thesis in Leiden Repository
Anthropogenic noise has been shown to affect marine animals in various ways, this may have fitness consequences at individual and population level. This thesis aims to increase insight into the quantification of sound-induced behavioural responses that are relevant to fitness, and into factors that modulate the responses. I addressed both knowledge gaps using captive and field studies on marine animals from multiple trophic levels. For the quantification of behavioural responses relevant to fitness, I examined the changes in time budgets of Atlantic cod in a net pen and basin in response to sound (chapter 2 and 3). To increase insight into factors that modulate sound impact, I examined the effect of various acoustic characteristics of sound stimuli and the environment on European seabass (chapter 4), the interaction between foraging shore crabs and common shrimps during noise (chapter 6), the cross-sensory interference by noise in foraging crabs (chapter 7), and habituation to repeated sound exposures by blue mussels (chapter 8). Future studies are needed to be able to link changes in time budgets to changes in energy budgets, and consequently to fitness. Additionally, studies into the factors that modulate the effects of sound are needed to fully understand the impact of sound.