The Moon has a curious effect on the sounds emanating from coral reefs
The moon's impact on life on Earth is greater than you might think. According to a new study, that includes altering the sounds emanating from coral reefs, indicating changes in ecosystem activity.
Every coral reef has its own unique soundscape, created by the activity of fish and other organisms as they move through the reef. Scientists can use this background sound to check what is happening around the coral.
In this study, researchers from the Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) and the U.S. Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) found that underwater sounds change rapidly as the moon rises and sets.
They found that "high-frequency pulse train sounds made by fish increased during moonlight hours, while low-frequency fish calls and invertebrate sounds decreased during moonlight hours.
These findings suggest that moonrise and moonset can cause regular changes in coral reef ecosystem interactions."
NUWC oceanographer Daniel Duane and colleagues brought sonic monitoring equipment to three reefs off the west coast of Hawaii to measure sound from 2020 to 2021. Using underwater listening devices, they took one-minute snapshots of the soundscape at 10- or 15-minute intervals.
The researchers did not elaborate on what the variations in the sounds collected meant. But generally speaking, a louder sound on a coral reef means that more organisms are living and feeding on it, making it a livelier and healthier reef.
Acoustic monitoring is a useful way for scientists to measure reef health without interfering too much with the organisms living on the reef. It can also track long-term ecosystem activity in remote areas where traditional methods are impractical.
The changes in biophones observed between moonrise and moonset are more likely to be a response to changes in lunar luminosity, rather than tidal changes."
The main benefit here would be conservation efforts. Such moonlight patterns would probably affect most coral reefs around the world. The research team suggests that regenerating the sound of coral reefs may attract more fish to the reefs.
It could also provide a means for scientists trying to protect coral reefs from global warming to compare different reefs to each other. A possible next step would be to map how changes in voice coincide with other indicators of reef health.
In the future, acoustic monitoring of coral reef health could be improved by comparing soundscapes during moonlight and non-moonlight hours."
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