Centre for Ecology and Conservation, College of Life & Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Penryn Campus, Penryn, United Kingdom.
Aquatic Research Facility, Environmental Sustainability Research Centre, University of Derby, Derby, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2022 Oct 27;17(10):e0276889. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0276889. eCollection 2022.
Anthropogenic noise is a recent addition to the list of human-made threats to the environment, with potential and established negative impacts on a wide range of animals. Despite their economic and ecological significance, few studies have considered the impact of anthropogenic noise on crustaceans, though past studies have shown that it can cause significant effects to crustacean physiology, anatomy, and behaviour. Mating behaviour in crustaceans could potentially be severely affected by anthropogenic noise, given that noise has been demonstrated to impact some crustacean's ability to detect and respond to chemical, visual, and acoustic cues, all of which are vital in courtship rituals. To explore if noise has an impact on crustacean mating, we tested the responses of male green shore crabs (Carcinus maenas) from the southwest UK coast by exposing them to ship noise recordings while simultaneously presenting them with a dummy-female soaked in the female-sex pheromone uridine diphosphate (UDP) in an experimental tank setup (recording treatment: n = 15, control treatment: n = 15). We found a significant, negative effect of noise on the occurrence of mating behaviour compared to no noise conditions, though no significant effect of noise on the time it took for a crab to respond to the pheromone. Such effects suggest reproductive impairment due to anthropogenic noise, which could potentially contribute to decreased crustacean populations and subsequent ecological and economic repercussions. Given the findings of our preliminary study, more research should be undertaken that includes larger sample sizes, double blind setups, and controlled laboratory trials in order to more fully extrapolate the potential impact of noise on mating in the natural environment.
人为噪声是人类对环境造成的最新威胁之一，它对广泛的动物产生了潜在的和已确立的负面影响。尽管甲壳类动物具有经济和生态意义，但很少有研究考虑人为噪声对甲壳类动物的影响，尽管过去的研究表明，它会对甲壳类动物的生理、解剖和行为产生重大影响。鉴于噪声已经证明会影响某些甲壳类动物检测和响应化学、视觉和声学线索的能力，而这些线索在求偶仪式中都是至关重要的，因此甲壳类动物的交配行为可能会受到人为噪声的严重影响。为了探索噪声是否会对甲壳类动物的交配产生影响，我们通过将雄性绿滨蟹（Carcinus maenas）暴露在船舶噪声记录中，同时在实验水箱设置中向它们呈现浸泡在雌性信息素尿苷二磷酸（UDP）中的假雌性，来测试来自英国西南部海岸的雄性绿滨蟹的反应（记录处理：n = 15，对照处理：n = 15）。我们发现，与无噪声条件相比，噪声对交配行为的发生有显著的负面影响，尽管噪声对螃蟹对信息素做出反应所需的时间没有显著影响。这种影响表明由于人为噪声而导致生殖受损，这可能会导致甲壳类动物数量减少，从而产生生态和经济后果。鉴于我们初步研究的结果，应该进行更多的研究，包括更大的样本量、双盲设置和受控的实验室试验，以便更全面地推断噪声对自然环境中交配的潜在影响。
