The effects of sound on the survivorship and embryonic development of a marine gastropod Stylocheilus striatus, (aplysiidae)

Environmental Science, Policy and Management, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, United States
DOI
10.7287/peerj.preprints.2651v1
Subject Areas
Conservation Biology, Developmental Biology, Ecology, Marine Biology
Keywords
Sound, Embryonic Development, Survivorship, Marine Gastropod, Stylocheilus striatus, Conservation, Anthropogenic Noise, Mo'orea, Coral Reef Algal Grazer, Morphological Differences
Copyright
© 2016 Spankowski
Licence
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
Cite this article
Spankowski RJ. 2016. The effects of sound on the survivorship and embryonic development of a marine gastropod Stylocheilus striatus, (aplysiidae) PeerJ Preprints 4:e2651v1

Abstract

How anthropogenic noise pollution affects marine organisms is drawing increasing international concern. There is evidence for anthropogenic noise having negative and harmful effects on the health, development and behavior of many terrestrial species; however, there are few examples of how specific frequencies of sound affect the survivorship and embryonic development of marine invertebrates. This experiment examines the effects of specific frequencies of sound on the survivorship and embryonic development of a marine gastropod, Stylocheilus striatus on the island of Mo’orea, French Polynesia. It was found that high frequency sound treatments caused a delay in the embryonic development of S. striatus embryos by 3 days while decreasing veliger survivorship by 37%. Additionally, high frequency treatments were shown to cause an observed morphological difference in shell morphology as compared to control and low frequency treatment groups. This study can be used to aid in the management and planning of future conservation polices regarding sound pollution and marine invertebrate gastropods as their presence is crucial for reef health and community structure.

Author Comment

This is a submission to PeerJ for review.

Supplemental Information

Stylocheilus striatus data

DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.2651v1/supp-1

Rstudio script

This is the Rstudio script containing the code I used for my stats.

DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.2651v1/supp-2