Human-generated noise pollution is of global concern, as designated by the World Health Organization ( WHO, 2011 , Burden of disease from environmental noise: Quantification of healthy life years lost in Europe. https://www.who.int/quantifying_ehimpacts/publications/e94888/en/). Increases in shipping, sonar use, pile driving, and more have all contributed to a rise in ambient underwater sound levels. Unfortunately, continuous low-intensity sounds, like shipping noise, are pervasive in shallow-shore environments where many social species live and correspond to the frequency ranges at which many fishes produce and detect acoustic stimuli. Noise has the potential to alter the sender's production of the signal, mask the signal itself (if acoustic), or change the receiver's physiology. We hypothesized that continuous tonal noise would impair social interactions and communication. To test this, we used highly social African cichlid fish, Astatotilapia burtoni, to examine inter- and intrasexual interactions that occurred in a control or noisy environment (pure tones of 100–2000 Hz). During reproductive interactions, we found that males changed the location of their courtship behaviours. Instead of producing courtship quivers (and associated sounds) immediately next to gravid females, males produced these behaviours inside their spawning shelter. This change in location decreases the likelihood of the female detecting it. Also detrimental to acoustic communication, we found that noise-exposed gravid females had lower hearing sensitivity at 100–200 Hz, a major component of male courtship sounds. In addition, males changed their visual displays during male–male territorial interactions such that they spent more time with their eyebar displayed, suggesting an increase in visual signalling. Together, these data indicate that noise may impact all three components of social communication: signal production, signal reception and the signal itself, and highlights a possible cross-modal impact of noise on visual signalling. Subtle changes to social behaviours and communication, rather than dramatic effects such as injury or mortality, are important to evaluating sublethal impacts of noise on reproductive success and species survival.

中文翻译：

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水下噪音会在攻击性和生殖性遭遇期间损害社会交流

正如世界卫生组织指定的那样，人为噪声污染是全球关注的问题（WHO，2011 年，环境噪声造成的疾病负担：欧洲损失的健康生命年的量化。https://www.who.int/quantifying_ehimpacts/出版物/e94888/en/）。航运、声纳使用、打桩等的增加都导致了环境水下声级的上升。不幸的是，连续的低强度声音，如航运噪音，在许多社会物种生活的浅岸环境中普遍存在，并且对应于许多鱼类产生和检测声刺激的频率范围。噪声有可能改变发送者的信号产生、掩盖信号本身（如果是声学的）或改变接收者的生理机能。我们假设连续的音调噪音会损害社交互动和交流。为了测试这一点，我们使用高度社交的非洲慈鲷鱼，Astatotilapia burtoni，来检查在控制或嘈杂环境（100-2000 Hz 的纯音调）中发生的性间和性间相互作用。在生殖互动中，我们发现雄性改变了求偶行为的位置。雄性不是在怀孕的雌性旁边立即产生求偶颤动（和相关的声音），而是在它们的产卵庇护所内产生这些行为。这种位置变化降低了女性检测到它的可能性。同样不利于声学交流，我们发现暴露于噪音的怀孕女性在 100-200 Hz 时的听力灵敏度较低，这是男性求爱声音的主要组成部分。此外，雄性在雄性与雄性领土互动期间改变了他们的视觉显示，因此他们花更多的时间来显示眼条，这表明视觉信号增加。总之，这些数据表明噪声可能影响社会交流的所有三个组成部分：信号产生、信号接收和信号本身，并强调了噪声对视觉信号可能产生的跨模式影响。社会行为和交流的微妙变化，而不是伤害或死亡等戏剧性影响，对于评估噪音对繁殖成功和物种生存的亚致死影响很重要。这些数据表明，噪声可能会影响社会交流的所有三个组成部分：信号产生、信号接收和信号本身，并强调了噪声对视觉信号可能产生的跨模式影响。社会行为和交流的微妙变化，而不是伤害或死亡等戏剧性影响，对于评估噪音对繁殖成功和物种生存的亚致死影响很重要。这些数据表明，噪声可能会影响社会交流的所有三个组成部分：信号产生、信号接收和信号本身，并强调了噪声对视觉信号可能产生的跨模式影响。社会行为和交流的微妙变化，而不是伤害或死亡等戏剧性影响，对于评估噪音对繁殖成功和物种生存的亚致死影响很重要。