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Full-Text Articles in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
The Role Of Backreef Soundscapes And Their Spatial Structure For Recruitment Of Tropical Marine Larvae, Emily R. Anderson
The Role Of Backreef Soundscapes And Their Spatial Structure For Recruitment Of Tropical Marine Larvae, Emily R. Anderson
Biological Sciences Theses & Dissertations
Underwater sound is a cue used by many marine larvae to orient to coastal habitats including backreef, sponge-dominated hardbottom habitat in the Florida Keys (Florida, USA) – a particularly “noisy” coastal habitat. However, the distance over which acoustic cues are attractive to settlement-stage larvae - is generally unknown. I examined this phenomenon in a region of the Florida Keys where mass sponge die-offs have diminished both underwater soundscapes and larval settlement. The absence of pronounced hardbottom-associated sound over such a large area allowed me to experimentally test in situ the response of fish and invertebrate larvae to broadcasted sounds at …
Characterization Of Soundscapes In Shallow Water Habitats Of The Florida Keys (Usa) And Their Influence On The Settlement Of Larval Fish And Invertebrates, John R. Butler
Biological Sciences Theses & Dissertations
In recent decades, changes in climate and water quality in Florida Bay and the Florida Keys (FL, USA) caused expansive cyanobacteria blooms that in turn precipitated massive sponge die-offs that drastically altered sponge-dominated hard-bottom communities in south-central Florida Bay. This area served as a model system to explore the effect of ecosystem change and habitat restoration on underwater soundscapes and larval recruitment. I had four main objectives: (1) characterize the underwater soundscapes of three near-shore, benthic habitats: mangrove islands, seagrass meadows, and hard-bottom (Chapter 2); (2) quantify larval settlement within healthy, degraded, and restored hard-bottom areas to test whether habitat …