Limiting motorboat noise on coral reefs boosts fish reproductive success

Sophie L Nedelec; Andrew N  Radford; Peter Gatenby; Isla Keesje Davidson; Laura Velasquez Jimenez; Maggie Travis; Katherine E Chapman; Kieran McCloskey; Timothy Lamont; Bjorn Illing; Mark McCormick; Steve Simpson

doi:10.1038/s41467-022-30332-5

Limiting motorboat noise on coral reefs boosts fish reproductive success

Sophie L Nedelec^*, Andrew N Radford, Peter Gatenby, Isla Keesje Davidson, Laura Velasquez Jimenez, Maggie Travis, Katherine E Chapman, Kieran McCloskey, Timothy Lamont, Bjorn Illing, Mark McCormick, Steve Simpson

^*Corresponding author for this work

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Abstract

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. A complementary laboratory experiment isolated the importance of noise and, in combination with the field study, showed that the enhanced reproductive success on protected reefs is likely due to improvements in parental care and offspring length. Our results suggest noise mitigation could have benefits that carry through to the population-level by increasing adult reproductive output and offspring growth, thus helping to protect coral reefs from human impacts and presenting a valuable opportunity for enhancing ecosystem resilience.

Original language	English
Article number	2822
Number of pages	9
Journal	Nature Communications
Volume	13
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-30332-5
Publication status	Published - 20 May 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Lizard Island staff, field assistants (Brendan Nedelec, Kasey Barnes, Olivia Rose, Sam Wines), MARFU staff (Ben Lawes, Simon Wever, Andrew Thompson), MARFU employees and volunteers (Ella Smyth, Geoffrey Dominic Yau, Millicent Nichols, Emily Mulroy, Hannah Wolstenholme, Blake Spady, Shannon McMahon), lab advice (Eric Fakan). This work was supported by funding from a Natural Environment Research Council Research Grant (S.D.S. and A.N.R.; NE/P001572/1), an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant (M.I.M.; DP170103372), a UKRI Strategic Priorities Fund Postdoctoral Fellowship (S.L.N.), a University of Exeter Vice-Chancellor Scholarship for Postgraduate Research (K.P.M.), a German Research Foundation (DFG) research fellowship (B.I.; IL 220/2-1) and a NERC-Australian Institute of Marine Science CASE GW4+ studentship (T.A.C.G.; NE/L002434/1).

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title = "Limiting motorboat noise on coral reefs boosts fish reproductive success",

abstract = "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. A complementary laboratory experiment isolated the importance of noise and, in combination with the field study, showed that the enhanced reproductive success on protected reefs is likely due to improvements in parental care and offspring length. Our results suggest noise mitigation could have benefits that carry through to the population-level by increasing adult reproductive output and offspring growth, thus helping to protect coral reefs from human impacts and presenting a valuable opportunity for enhancing ecosystem resilience.",

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note = "Funding Information: Lizard Island staff, field assistants (Brendan Nedelec, Kasey Barnes, Olivia Rose, Sam Wines), MARFU staff (Ben Lawes, Simon Wever, Andrew Thompson), MARFU employees and volunteers (Ella Smyth, Geoffrey Dominic Yau, Millicent Nichols, Emily Mulroy, Hannah Wolstenholme, Blake Spady, Shannon McMahon), lab advice (Eric Fakan). This work was supported by funding from a Natural Environment Research Council Research Grant (S.D.S. and A.N.R.; NE/P001572/1), an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant (M.I.M.; DP170103372), a UKRI Strategic Priorities Fund Postdoctoral Fellowship (S.L.N.), a University of Exeter Vice-Chancellor Scholarship for Postgraduate Research (K.P.M.), a German Research Foundation (DFG) research fellowship (B.I.; IL 220/2-1) and a NERC-Australian Institute of Marine Science CASE GW4+ studentship (T.A.C.G.; NE/L002434/1). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2022, The Author(s).",

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AU - McCormick, Mark

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N2 - 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. A complementary laboratory experiment isolated the importance of noise and, in combination with the field study, showed that the enhanced reproductive success on protected reefs is likely due to improvements in parental care and offspring length. Our results suggest noise mitigation could have benefits that carry through to the population-level by increasing adult reproductive output and offspring growth, thus helping to protect coral reefs from human impacts and presenting a valuable opportunity for enhancing ecosystem resilience.

AB - 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. A complementary laboratory experiment isolated the importance of noise and, in combination with the field study, showed that the enhanced reproductive success on protected reefs is likely due to improvements in parental care and offspring length. Our results suggest noise mitigation could have benefits that carry through to the population-level by increasing adult reproductive output and offspring growth, thus helping to protect coral reefs from human impacts and presenting a valuable opportunity for enhancing ecosystem resilience.

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Limiting motorboat noise on coral reefs boosts fish reproductive success

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