Publications by authors named "Jelle Atema"

Although many crustaceans produce sounds, their hearing abilities and mechanisms are poorly understood, leaving uncertainties regarding whether or how these animals use sound for acoustic communication. Marine invertebrates lack gas-filled organs required for sound pressure detection, but some of them are known to be sensitive to particle motion. Here, we examined whether the American lobster () could detect sound and subsequently sought to discern the auditory mechanisms.

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Using massively parallel sequencing data from two species with different life history traits, American lobster (Homarus americanus) and Arctic Char (Salvelinus alpinus), we highlight how an unbalanced sex ratio in the samples and a few sex-linked markers may lead to false interpretations of population structure and thus to potentially erroneous management recommendations. Here, multivariate analyses revealed two genetic clusters separating samples by sex instead of by expected spatial variation: inshore and offshore locations in lobster, or east and west locations in Arctic Char. To further investigate this, we created several subsamples artificially varying the sex ratio in the inshore/offshore and east/west groups and then demonstrated that significant genetic differentiation could be observed despite panmixia in lobster, and that F values were overestimated in Arctic Char.

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Shelter-seeking behaviors are vital for survival for a range of juvenile benthic organisms. These behaviors may be innate or they may be affected by prior experience. After hatching, American lobsters Homarus americanus likely first come into contact with shelter during the late postlarval (decapodid) stage, known as stage IV.

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The ability of predators to modulate prey capture in response to the size, location, and behavior of prey is critical to successful feeding on a variety of prey types. Modulating in response to changes in sensory information may be critical to successful foraging in a variety of environments. Three shark species with different feeding morphologies and behaviors were filmed using high-speed videography while capturing live prey: the ram-feeding blacktip shark, the ram-biting bonnethead, and the suction-feeding nurse shark.

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Recent studies show that ocean acidification impairs sensory functions and alters the behavior of teleost fishes. If sharks and other elasmobranchs are similarly affected, this could have significant consequences for marine ecosystems globally. Here, we show that projected future CO2 levels impair odor tracking behavior of the smooth dogfish (Mustelus canis).

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The underwater sensory world and the sensory systems of aquatic animals have become better understood in recent decades, but typically have been studied one sense at a time. A comprehensive analysis of multisensory interactions during complex behavioral tasks has remained a subject of discussion without experimental evidence. We set out to generate a general model of multisensory information extraction by aquatic animals.

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The behavior of reef fish larvae, equipped with a complex toolbox of sensory apparatus, has become a central issue in understanding their transport in the ocean. In this study pelagic reef fish larvae were monitored using an unmanned open-ocean tracking device, the drifting in-situ chamber (DISC), deployed sequentially in oceanic waters and in reef-born odor plumes propagating offshore with the ebb flow. A total of 83 larvae of two taxonomic groups of the families Pomacentridae and Apogonidae were observed in the two water masses around One Tree Island, southern Great Barrier Reef.

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Reef fish sustain populations on isolated reefs and show genetic diversity between nearby reefs even though larvae of many species are swept away from the natal site during pelagic dispersal. Retention or recruitment to natal reefs requires orientation capabilities that enable larvae to find their way. Although olfactory and acoustically based orientation has been implicated in homing when larvae are in the reef's vicinity, it is still unclear how they cope with greater distances.

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The direction of an odor signal source can be estimated from bilateral differences in signal intensity and/or arrival time. The best-known examples of the use of arrival time differences are in acoustic orientation. For chemoreception, animals are believed to orient by comparing bilateral odor concentration differences, turning toward higher concentrations.

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Odor plumes are complex, dynamic, three-dimensional structures used by many animals to locate food, mates, home sites, etc. Yet odor itself has no directional properties. Animals use a variety of different senses to obtain directional information.

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Many marine fish and invertebrates show a dual life history where settled adults produce dispersing larvae. The planktonic nature of the early larval stages suggests a passive dispersal model where ocean currents would quickly cause panmixis over large spatial scales and prevent isolation of populations, a prerequisite for speciation. However, high biodiversity and species abundance in coral reefs contradict this panmixis hypothesis.

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Individual recognition is a key element in the social life of many invertebrates. However, most studies conducted so far document that several species are capable of a "binary" discrimination among conspecifics, but not of a "true individual recognition." Our objective was to learn more about the mechanisms that underlie individual recognition by odor in hermit crabs by individuating some of its properties.

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Individual recognition in the lobster Homarus americanus (Milne-Edwards), is based on detection of urine pheromones via chemoreceptors of the lateral antennular flagellum. The specific sensory pathway mediating this recognition is not known. Most of the chemoreceptor cells of this flagellum are found in the unimodal aesthetasc sensilla and project specifically to the glomeruli of the olfactory lobe in the brain.

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In a previous study we showed that nocturnal piscivorous catfish track the wake left by a swimming prey fish to locate it, following past locations to detect the present location of the prey. In a wake there are hydrodynamic as well as chemical signatures that both contain information on location and suitability of the prey. In order to determine how these two wake stimuli are utilised in prey tracking, we conducted experiments in catfish in which either the lateral line or the external gustation was ablated.

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We report the results of a nonmanipulative field study of the lobster, Homarus americanus, using long-term behavioral observations of marked individuals. We observed a freely mobile population in an open shallow cove habitat (50 m x 150 m) in Buzzards Bay, Massachusetts. Lobsters larger than 50 mm carapace length (CL) living in or entering the study site were marked individually (334 during the 19-month study).

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Over a three-year period (1978-1981) behavioral observations of the lobster, Homarus americanus, were made by snorkeling in a shallow cove. Three hundred and thirty-four (334) animals were individually marked and this was the only time they were disturbed. In summer, the resident population numbered about 30 animals.

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