DISSERTATION RESEARCH: Underwater soundscapes and their potential role in the settlement of estuarine benthic invertebrates

大多数生活在海底的海洋生物（如螃蟹、贻贝、珊瑚），在沉入海底之前，先在水柱中发育受精卵和幼体。找到合适的栖息地对于确定构成海洋群落的成虫的分布和数量至关重要。最近有研究表明，在这一过程中，水下声音可能是海洋鱼类和无脊椎动物幼虫使用的重要线索，但相关的声音模式和相关的幼虫反应在很大程度上仍未得到研究。因此，本研究的目的是了解幼虫生态学中水声的本质。这将通过描述河口声景和确定声音变化如何影响无脊椎动物的定居来完成。研究人员将使用牡蛎和蛤蜊的幼虫，以及河口栖息地的声景作为模型系统，迄今为止的结果已经确定牡蛎礁在声学上与邻近的软底栖息地不同，并且这些珊瑚礁的声音在实验室实验中增强了牡蛎的沉降。这个博士论文改进资助项目特别寻求通过进行实地实验来扩展这些最近的实验室结果，以测试幼虫对栖息地相关声音的明显反应是否在自然环境中起作用，从而形成定居模式。建立海洋幼虫对诸如声音等生物物理变量的行为反应的知识，以及由此产生的海洋生物的分布和丰度模式，对于提高对海洋生物学的理解至关重要。这项工作还强调了海洋噪音污染的潜在生物学意义，并可能阐明以前未经测试的声景多样性的好处，最终导致更健康和更好地管理海洋和河口生态系统。

Most bottom-dwelling marine organisms (e.g. crabs, mussels, corals) develop, zygotes and larvae, in the water column before settling on the sea floor. Reaching an appropriate habitat is critical in determining the distribution and abundance of adults, which make-up marine communities. It has recently been shown that underwater sounds may be an important cue used for marine fish and invertebrate larval in this process, yet the relevant acoustic patterns and associated larval responses remain largely unstudied. Therefore the goal of the research is to understand the nature of underwater sound in larval ecology. This will be done by characterizing an estuarine soundscape and determining how sound variation affects the settlement of invertebrates. The researcher will use larval oysters and clams, and the soundscape of estuarine habitats as a model system, results to date have established that oyster reefs are acoustically distinct from adjacent soft bottom habitats, and that these reef sounds enhance oyster settlement in laboratory experiments. This Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant project specifically seeks to expand upon these recent laboratory results by conducting field experiments to test if the apparent larval responses to habitat-related sound operate in the natural environment to shape settlement patterns. Building knowledge of the behavioral responses of marine larvae to bio-physical variables such as sound, and the resulting distribution and abundance patterns of marine organisms is central to improved understanding of marine biology. This work also highlights a potential biological implication of marine noise pollution and may elucidate previously untested benefits of soundscape diversity, ultimately leading to healthier and better-managed ocean and estuary ecosystems.