EFFECTS OF WATER GUN ON ECHINODERMS: BIOCHEMICAL CHANGES ON SEA URCHIN (Arbacia lixula) AND SEA CUCUMBER (Holothuria tubulosa)

CERAULO M.; GREGORIETTI M; SAL MOYANO M. P.; MAURO M; BUSCAINO G; PAPALE E; GRAMMAUTA R; GIACALONE VM; DIOGUARDI M; MAZZOLA S; VAZZANA M; DI FIORE V; CELI M

La Haya

Congreso; The effects of noise on aquatic life; 2019

Acoustic Society of America

Sources Airguns and Waterguns are used in seismic exploration the marine seafloor for different purposes suchas oil and gas search, or geological-geodynamic reconstruction. In this technique a bubble of compressed air isproduced with a consequently production of loud sound wave penetrating the ocean floor.The impact of seismic Airguns was assessed in some cetaceans (Kyhn et al. 2019), fish species and invertebrate(Carroll et al. 2017), but we need to know more.In this study we evaluate the biochemical changes in sea urchin (Arbacia lixula) and sea cucumber (Holothuriatubulosa) exposed to a 20 minutes of watergun noise (1 pulse each 10 s) at a distance of 50 m. For each species40 individuals were captured and caged in the sea in groups of 10. After four days of acclimation we started theexperimental test that previewed these 4 samplings phases: T0-control group before the Watergun soundexposition; T1-post group soon after the end of sound exposition; T2-post group after 3 hour of exposition; T3-post group after 24 hour of exposition.Watergun pulse was characterized by measuring pressure (SM2U, Wildlife Acoustics) and particle speed (M20-105, Geospectrum) in the three dimensions at the same position of the caged animals. Watergun pulses PowerSpectral Density for pressure and particle speed showed respectively a peak of 122 dB re1μPa2/Hz at 850 Hz anda peak of 207 dB re(1nm/s)2 at 550 Hz for x component (direction parallel to the sea surface and forward thecaged animals).The coelomatic fluid was extracted by each animal for the following successive analysis: total volumewithdrawn, Total Hemocytes Counts (THC), total protein, phosphatase, esterase and peroxidase activity.In the sea urchin we observed significant differences in esterase (T0 < T2 and T3), and peroxidase (T0 < T2 andT3). Concerning sea cucumber we found significant differences for THC (T0 T2;T1 < T2). This is the first attempt to study the effects of a short loud low frequencies sound exposition inechinoderms species and results show that these animals reacted to the noise with an alteration of some coelomicfluid parameters indicators of stress.Carroll AG, Przeslawski R, Duncan A, Gunning M & Bruce B (2017) A critical review of the potential impacts of marineseismic surveys on fish & invertebrates. Mar Pollut Bull 114:9?24.Kyhn LA, Wisniewska DM, Beedholm K, Tougaard J, Simon M, Mosbech A & Madsen PT (2019) Basin-widecontributions to the underwater soundscape by multiple seismic surveys with implications for marine mammals inBaffin Bay, Greenland. Mar Pollut Bull 138:474?490.