As anthropogenic noise increases globally, there is an urgent need to understand how noise impacts ecological communities. Recent literature shows both terrestrial and aquatic species exhibit myriad responses to noise, including physiological stress, higher mortality, and habitat avoidance. Most studies focus on the responses of single species from terrestrial or marine habitats, with fewer examining freshwater systems and implications for trophic relationships. We used a laboratory study to investigate whether highland stonerollers (Campostoma spadecium), an algivorous freshwater fish, avoid recreational boat noise and thus graze preferentially in quieter areas. For seven groups of eight fish, we recorded the tank position (near, mid, far) of individual fish relative to a speaker playing intermittent boat noise (noise trials) and a mock speaker playing no noise (quiet trials) over a 3-day period. After each trial, we measured the proportion of algae grazed from tiles placed in each section of the tank. Our results show that fish did not avoid the noise speaker compared to fish near the mock speaker in the near section of the tank, but they were found in higher proportions in the quietest section of the tank (mid) during noise trials. There was no difference in the amount of algae consumed in any section when comparing quiet to noisy trials. Thus, our study did not indicate that recreational boat noise elicited clear avoidance behavior or impacted algal coverage. However, these results should be interpreted cautiously since sensitivity to noise pollution varies according to stimulus and species, and these results represent only one species from one geographic location.

随着全球人为噪声的增加，迫切需要了解噪声如何影响生态社区。最近的文献表明，陆地和水生物种对噪音表现出无数反应，包括生理压力、更高的死亡率和避免栖息地。大多数研究侧重于来自陆地或海洋栖息地的单一物种的反应，较少研究淡水系统和对营养关系的影响。我们使用实验室研究来调查高地滚石 ( Campostoma spadecium)，一种食草淡水鱼，避免娱乐性船只噪音，因此优先在较安静的区域吃草。对于 7 组 8 条鱼，我们记录了在 3 天内单个鱼相对于播放间歇性船噪音（噪音试验）和模拟扬声器不播放噪音（安静试验）的扬声器的水箱位置（近、中、远）期间。每次试验后，我们测量了从放置在水箱每个部分的瓷砖上掠过的藻类的比例。我们的结果表明，与靠近水箱附近模拟扬声器的鱼相比，鱼并没有避开噪声扬声器，但在噪声试验期间，它们在水箱最安静的部分（中间）中的比例更高。比较安静和嘈杂的试验时，任何部分的藻类消耗量都没有差异。因此，我们的研究并未表明休闲船的噪音会引起明显的回避行为或影响藻类覆盖。然而，应谨慎解释这些结果，因为对噪声污染的敏感性因刺激物和物种而异，而且这些结果仅代表来自一个地理位置的一种物种。