Actively soniferous tropical reef fishes are diverse, vulnerable, and valuable

Abstract

Active (i.e., intentional) fish sound production provides informative cues for numerous ecological functions, including larval recruitment or reproduction, and can facilitate monitoring and restoration. It is therefore important to have a holistic picture of actively soniferous tropical reef fish diversity, particularly in the face of growing threats such as noise pollution and habitat degradation. This study integrates fish biodiversity and sonifery datasets to assess the prevalence and ecological characteristics of actively soniferous tropical reef fishes. There are 258 known sound-producing species, which span 46 families, encompass a variety of life-history (e.g., lifespan) and distribution (e.g., depth) attributes, and include many vulnerable and commercially valuable species. Furthermore, up to 75% of tropical reef fish species are considered likely to produce active sounds. This synthesis should encourage a greater appreciation for active fish sound production in tropical reef environments and advance efforts to incorporate soundscape ecology into management and restoration strategies.

Keywords: bioacoustics; ecoacoustics; marine; passive acoustic monitoring; sound production; soundscape.

FIGURE 1

Taxonomy and characteristics of the 258 known actively soniferous tropical reef fish species, with representative images of select taxa (Schiettekatte et al., 2019). (a) Their abundance by family, (b) abundance relative to the number of tropical reef species within each family, and (c–f) prevalence across (c) maximum depths (bins = 15, n = 246), (d) body lengths (bins = 25, n = 256), (e) body shapes (n = 258), and (f) maximum lifespans (bins = 15, n = 40), as determined by FishBase (Froese & Pauly, 2023) and compiled from available data in rfishbase (Boettiger et al., 2012).

FIGURE 2

Vulnerability and commercial attributes of known actively soniferous and all tropical reef fish species. (a) Their vulnerability to fishing pressure (n = 258 and n = 3936) and (b) climate change (n = 34 and n = 156), with higher scores meaning species are more vulnerable to the associated pressure based on life‐history traits, as well as their (c) importance for fisheries (n = 191 and n = 1443) and (d) for aquarium trade (n = 239 and n = 3365), as determined by FishBase (Froese & Pauly, 2023) and compiled from available data in rfishbase (Boettiger et al., 2012).