Use of Passive Acoustic Monitoring to detect diurnal and lunar fish community activity cycles in fish hatchery ponds and public reservoirs in Illinois

The use of sound by marine fishes to communicate has been widely studied, and we know species-specific calls are commonly used for communication. Passive sound monitors are used to assess biological activity and even ecosystem health in marine systems.  However, the extent to which freshwater fishes or invertebrates use sound is relatively unknown. We used passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) of two fish hatchery ponds and two reservoirs. From these recordings, we calculated several bioacoustics indices that are commonly used in terrestrial bioacoustics monitoring, e.g., the acoustic diversity index (ADI), acoustic complexity index (ACI), and normalized difference soundscape index (NDSI). We found no significant difference in ADI, ACI or NDSI between reservoirs and the fish hatchery ponds. However, ADI and ACI were significantly higher during the full moon. ADI had higher values during the day than night, while ACI was higher during the dawn and day periods relative to night. NDSI was higher during the new moon but did not have diurnal patterns. We were also able to specifically identify fathead minnow (Pimephales promelas) sounds and identify periods when this species was active as an example of the applicability of this approach.  Our results suggest that passive acoustic monitoring may be an effective tool in monitoring community assemblages in freshwater systems and even identifying individual species.

Primary Presenter: William Perry, Illinois State University (wlperry@ilstu.edu)

Authors:

Kiana Kiana Ischner, Illinois State University  (kianaitschner@gmail.com)

Galina Shinkareva, Illinois State University  (gshinka@ilstu.edu)

Catherine O'Reilly, Illinois State University  (cmoreil@ilstu.edu)