MARE_Marine and Environmental Sciences Centre, ISPA, Instituto Universitário, Lisbon, Portugal.
Departamento de Biologia Animal and cE3c_Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal.
Sci Total Environ. 2022 Mar 10;811:151367. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.151367. Epub 2021 Nov 2.
Marine traffic is the most common and chronic source of ocean noise pollution. Despite the evidence of detrimental effects of noise exposure on fish, knowledge about the effects on the critical early life stages - embryos and larvae - is still scarce. Here, we take a natural habitat-based approach to examine potential impacts of boat noise exposure in early life stages in a wild fish population of the Lusitanian toadfish (Halobatrachus didactylus). In-situ experiments were carried out in the Tagus estuary, an estuary with significant commercial and recreational boat traffic. Nests with eggs were exposed to either ambient (control) or boat noise (treatment), for 1 fortnight. Eggs were photographed before being assigned to each treatment, and after exposure, to count number of eggs and/or larvae to assess survival, and sampled to study development and oxidative stress and energy metabolism-related biomarkers. Data concerns 4 sampling periods (fortnights) from 2 years. Results indicate that offspring survival did not differ between treatments, but boat noise induced a detrimental effect on embryos and larvae stress response, and on larvae development. Embryos showed reduced levels of electron transport system (ETS), an energy metabolism-related biomarker, while larvae showed higher overall stress responses, with increased levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and DNA damage (oxidative stress related responses), ETS, and reduced growth. With this study, we provided the first evidence of detrimental effects of boat noise exposure on fish development in the field and on stress biomarker responses. If these critical early stages are not able to compensate and/or acclimate to the noise stress later in the ontogeny, then anthropogenic noise has the potential to severely affect this and likely other marine fishes, with further consequences for populations resilience and dynamics.
海洋交通是海洋噪声污染最常见和最持久的来源。尽管有证据表明噪声暴露对鱼类有不利影响，但关于噪声对关键的早期生命阶段（胚胎和幼虫）的影响的知识仍然很少。在这里，我们采用基于自然栖息地的方法，研究了在野生鲈形目蟾鱼（Halobatrachus didactylus）种群的早期生命阶段，船只噪声暴露的潜在影响。在塔霍河口进行了现场实验，该河口有大量商业和娱乐船只交通。将带有卵子的巢暴露在环境（对照）或船只噪声（处理）中 1 个 2 周。在分配给每个处理之前，对卵子进行拍照，并在暴露后拍照，以计算卵子和/或幼虫的数量，以评估存活率，并取样以研究发育和氧化应激与能量代谢相关的生物标志物。数据涉及 2 年中的 4 个采样期（2 周）。结果表明，处理组之间的后代存活率没有差异，但船只噪声对胚胎和幼虫的应激反应以及幼虫的发育产生了不利影响。胚胎表现出电子传递系统（ETS）水平降低，这是一种与能量代谢相关的生物标志物，而幼虫表现出更高的整体应激反应，超氧化物歧化酶（SOD）和 DNA 损伤（氧化应激相关反应）、ETS 水平升高，生长速度降低。通过这项研究，我们首次提供了船只噪声暴露对鱼类在野外发育和应激生物标志物反应产生不利影响的证据。如果这些关键的早期阶段不能在个体发育过程中对噪声应激进行补偿和/或适应，那么人为噪声有可能严重影响这一阶段以及其他可能的海洋鱼类，对种群的恢复力和动态产生进一步的影响。
