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Welcoming Neighborhood Sounds
A healthy reef is noisy. When looking for a place to settle, coral
larvae are attracted to the sounds of healthy reefs. Credit:
Frédéric Ducarme, CC BY-SA 4.0
If you knew that where you settled down would be home for the rest of
your life, you’d make sure it was the best neighborhood you could find.
That’s the situation larval corals face as they drift with ocean currents
looking for the reef that will become their forever home. Light and
chemicals in the seawater play a role in where larvae settle, but scientists
recently discovered another factor: how the neighborhood sounds.
Just as people might avoid homes near railroad tracks or an airport, larval coral pay attention to sounds when home shopping. But instead of peace and quiet, coral larvae listen for the rich soundscape of a thriving coral reef. Reefs heavily damaged by coral bleaching, disease or human behavior are far quieter, without the noises of fish, shrimp, and other animals in a healthy ecosystem.
Researchers discovered this from experiments in the U.S. Virgin Islands in the summer of 2022. They placed cups of mustard hill coral larvae along three reefs on St. John’s southern coast. Cocoloba Reef and Salt Pond Reef have few corals and fishes, but the third reef, Tektite Reef, is relatively healthy. The scientists set out cups at various distances from underwater speakers at each reef. Then they played healthy reef sounds, recorded a decade earlier at Tektite Reef, for three days—but only through the Salt Pond speakers.
Researchers discovered this from experiments in the U.S. Virgin Islands in the summer of 2022. They placed cups of mustard hill coral larvae along three reefs on St. John’s southern coast. Cocoloba Reef and Salt Pond Reef have few corals and fishes, but the third reef, Tektite Reef, is relatively healthy. The scientists set out cups at various distances from underwater speakers at each reef. Then they played healthy reef sounds, recorded a decade earlier at Tektite Reef, for three days—but only through the Salt Pond speakers.
Just as people might avoid homes near railroad tracks or an airport, larval coral pay attention to sounds when home shopping. But instead of peace and quiet, coral larvae listen for the rich soundscape of a thriving coral reef. Reefs heavily damaged by coral bleaching, disease or human behavior are far quieter, without the noises of fish, shrimp, and other animals in a healthy ecosystem.
Researchers discovered this from experiments in the U.S. Virgin Islands in the summer of 2022. They placed cups of mustard hill coral larvae along three reefs on St. John’s southern coast. Cocoloba Reef and Salt Pond Reef have few corals and fishes, but the third reef, Tektite Reef, is relatively healthy. The scientists set out cups at various distances from underwater speakers at each reef. Then they played healthy reef sounds, recorded a decade earlier at Tektite Reef, for three days—but only through the Salt Pond speakers.
Researchers discovered this from experiments in the U.S. Virgin Islands in the summer of 2022. They placed cups of mustard hill coral larvae along three reefs on St. John’s southern coast. Cocoloba Reef and Salt Pond Reef have few corals and fishes, but the third reef, Tektite Reef, is relatively healthy. The scientists set out cups at various distances from underwater speakers at each reef. Then they played healthy reef sounds, recorded a decade earlier at Tektite Reef, for three days—but only through the Salt Pond speakers.