Institute of Anthropic Impact and Sustainability in Marine Environment (IAS), CNR National Research Council, Italy; NBFC, National Biodiversity Future Center, Piazza Marina 61, 90133, Palermo, Italy.
Institute of Anthropic Impact and Sustainability in Marine Environment (IAS), CNR National Research Council, Italy.
Mar Environ Res. 2024 Nov;202:106819. doi: 10.1016/j.marenvres.2024.106819. Epub 2024 Oct 29.
Back-reef habitats are important and fragile transition zones acting as nurseries for many coral reef fishes. In this framework, Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) can be an important tool to evaluate the diversity and dynamics of sonic fish community. Here, we investigated the diversity, spatial and diel dynamics of fish sounds in back-reef habitats at Makogai Island in Fiji, South Pacific. Synchronized underwater recorders were deployed in 4 bays collecting data for about 4 days. The abundance of 12 different sub-categories of fish sounds were quantified. Signals were acoustically characterized and the level of discrimination between the sub-categories was evaluated by Discrimination Function Analysis. Generalized Additive Models showed that the abundance of signals was related to the bay and the hour. Moreover, the Shannon Diversity and Equitability Indices were calculated using acoustic and visual census data to describe fish biodiversity of each bay. The two bays with greater biodiversity based on visual census also showed a greater acoustic diversity at dawn and night. Our results highlight the importance of PAM to reveal the diversity of fish community in back-reef habitats, providing a baseline to understand future changes in these crucial environments.
后礁生境是重要而脆弱的过渡带，是许多珊瑚礁鱼类的育苗场。在这种情况下，被动声学监测（PAM）可以成为评估声鱼群落多样性和动态的重要工具。在这里，我们调查了南太平洋斐济马高盖岛后礁生境中的鱼类声音的多样性、空间和昼夜动态。同步水下记录器被部署在 4 个海湾中，大约 4 天内收集数据。量化了 12 种不同亚类别的鱼类声音的丰度。通过判别函数分析评估了信号的声学特征和亚类之间的区分程度。广义加性模型表明，信号的丰度与海湾和小时有关。此外，使用声学和视觉普查数据计算了香农多样性和均等性指数，以描述每个海湾的鱼类生物多样性。基于视觉普查具有更高生物多样性的两个海湾在黎明和夜间也显示出更大的声学多样性。我们的结果强调了 PAM 揭示后礁生境中鱼类群落多样性的重要性，为了解这些关键环境的未来变化提供了基线。
