ANTHROPOGENIC AND BIOLOGICAL SOUND EFFECT ON MATERNAL BEHAVIORS OF A SEMITERRETRIAL KEY CRAB SPECIES

SAL MOYANO MP.; CERAULO M.; LUPPI T. A.; GAVIO M. A.; BUSCAINO G.

Berlin

Conferencia; The effects of noise on aquatic life; 2022

JASCO

ANTHROPOGENIC AND BIOLOGICAL SOUND EFFECT ON MATERNAL BEHAVIORS OF A SEMITERRETRIAL KEY CRAB SPECIESMaría Paz Sal Moyano1, Maria Ceraulo2, Tomás Luppi1, María Andrea Gavio1, Giuseppa Buscaino21 Instituto de Investigaciones Marinas y Costeras (IIMyC), FCEyN, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata-CONICET, CC1260, 7600 Mar del Plata, Provincia de Buenos Aires, Argentina, emails: salmoyan@mdp.edu.ar, taluppi@mdp.edu.ar, gavio@mdp.edu.ar2 Institute of Anthropic Impact and Sustainability in Marine Environment-National Research Council (IAS-CNR), 91020 Torretta Granitola (TP), Italy, emails: maria.ceraulo@ias.cnr.it, giuseppa.buscaino@cnr.itMaternal care (MC) in marine decapods involves eggs caring in the brood compartment until larvae hatching. MC allows embryo mass oxygen supply, the cleaning of eggs and elimination of metabolites ensuring a healthy embryonic development. The aim of the present study was to analyze the effect of different sound sources and temporal patterns of exposure on the MC of the crab Neohelice granulata. In the laboratory, three acoustic stimuli were play back: artificial white noise (10Hz–40kHz), anthropogenic noise of motorboat passages and biological signals from crabs’ predator fish, both obtained from the natural crab habitat. Two patterns of emission were considered: continuous, containing 1-min of the sound stimulus + 1-min of silence; and intermittent, containing 1-min of the sound stimulus + 5-min of silence (N=10 for each one). Seven treatments were conducted: white noise, fish, motorboat, continuous and intermittent in each case, and a control without sound. One-hour experiments were divided in “before” and “experimental” phase (30-min each). The duration of three behavioral variables was considered: abdominal flapping and chelae probing, both proxies of MC behaviors, and staying in still position. For the statistical analysis, the flapping was considered individually and jointly with the chela probing and named MC. Results demonstrated no differences among treatments when comparing the “before” phases. Considering the “experimental” phases, differences between the continuous and intermittent patterns were found only for white noise stimulus and flapping: females diminished this behavior under continuous stimulus. For all the others stimuli and variables, no differences were found between the two patterns of emission, therefore, data were pooled. All stimuli negatively affected the MC behaviors compared to control conditions. Motorboats’ and fish’ stimuli reduced MC but not flapping, thus, chela probing was the behavior greatest affected. However, flapping is the most frequent maternal behavior displayed in this species (Silva et al. 2007). Consequently, flapping is suggested as a conservative behavior not modified under stress conditions. Only anthropogenic stimuli, both motorboat and white noise, favored the still position. It is proposed that anthropogenic noise cause distraction which is linked to the increased still position, while the predator stimulus would be associated with an alert behavior not affecting the locomotion behavior. This study contributes the first in assessing the effect of different artificial and habitat sounds sources on the maternal behavior of a crustacean species, revealing a negative effect of anthropogenic and predatory sounds on MC.Silva PV, Luppi TA, Spivak ED (2007) “Epibiosis on eggs and brooding care in the burrowing crab Chasmagnathus granulatus (Brachyura:Varunidae): comparison between mudflats and salt marshes”. J Mar Biol Ass UK 87:893–901