Shipbuilding Docks as Experimental Systems for Realistic Assessments of Anthropogenic Stressors on Marine Organisms.

Empirical investigations of the impacts of anthropogenic stressors on marine organisms are typically performed under controlled laboratory conditions, onshore mesocosms, or via offshore experiments with realistic (but uncontrolled) environmental variation. These approaches have merits, but onshore setups are generally small sized and fail to recreate natural stressor fields, whereas offshore studies are often compromised by confounding factors. We suggest the use of flooded shipbuilding docks to allow studying realistic exposure to stressors and their impacts on the intra- and interspecific responses of animals.

Anthropogenic noise pollution from pile-driving disrupts the structure and dynamics of fish shoals.

Noise produced from a variety of human activities can affect the physiology and behaviour of individual animals, but whether noise disrupts the social behaviour of animals is largely unknown. Animal groups such as flocks of birds or shoals of fish use simple interaction rules to coordinate their movements with near neighbours. In turn, this coordination allows individuals to gain the benefits of group living such as reduced predation risk and social information exchange.

Expanding the Link between Out-Group Threats and In-Group Behavior: (A Reply to Kavaliers and Choleris).

In social species, groups and their members face a variety of threats from conspecific outsiders. Such out-group conflict is predicted to influence within-group behavior, with empirical work demonstrating this link in humans, primates, and birds. In our note "Out-Group Threat Promotes Within-Group Affiliation in a Cooperative Fish," appearing in The American Naturalist in February 2016, we provided experimental evidence that simulated territorial intrusions result in subsequent increases in affiliation among groupmates in a cichlid fish (Neolamprologus pulcher).

Rapid recovery following short-term acoustic disturbance in two fish species.

Noise from human activities is known to impact organisms in a variety of taxa, but most experimental studies on the behavioural effects of noise have focused on examining responses associated with the period of actual exposure. Unlike most pollutants, acoustic noise is generally short-lived, usually dissipating quickly after the source is turned off or leaves the area. In a series of experiments, we use established experimental paradigms to examine how fish behaviour and physiology are affected, both during short-term (2 min) exposure to playback of recordings of anthropogenic noise sources and in the immediate aftermath of noise exposure.

Out-Group Threat Promotes Within-Group Affiliation in a Cooperative Fish.

In social species, conflict with outsiders is predicted to affect within-group interactions and thus influence group dynamics and the evolution and maintenance of sociality. Although empirical evidence exists for a relationship between out-group conflict and intragroup behavior in humans, experimental tests in other animals are rare. In a model fish system, we show that simulated out-group intrusions cause postconflict increases in intragroup affiliation but no changes in postconflict intragroup aggression.

Condition-dependent physiological and behavioural responses to anthropogenic noise.

Anthropogenic (man-made) noise, a global pollutant of international concern, is known to affect the physiology and behaviour of a range of organisms. However, experimental studies have tended to focus on trait means; intra-population variation in responses are likely, but have rarely been explored. Here we use established experimental methods to demonstrate a condition-dependent effect of additional noise.

Beyond a Simple Effect: Variable and Changing Responses to Anthropogenic Noise.

A growing number of experimental studies have demonstrated that exposure to anthropogenic noise can affect the behavior and physiology of a variety of aquatic organisms. However, work in other fields suggests that responses are likely to differ between species, individuals, and situations and across time. We suggest that issues such as interspecific and intrapopulation variation, context dependency, repeated exposure and prior experience, and recovery and compensation need to be considered if we are to gain a full understanding of the impacts of this global pollutant.

Chronic playback of boat noise does not impact hatching success or post-hatching larval growth and survival in a cichlid fish.

Anthropogenic (man-made) noise has been shown to have a negative impact on the behaviour and physiology of a range of terrestrial and aquatic animals. However, direct assessments of fitness consequences are rare. Here we examine the effect of additional noise on early life stages in the model cichlid fish, Neolamprologus pulcher.

Intra- and interspecific challenges modulate cortisol but not androgen levels in a year-round territorial damselfish.

Interactions between individuals of different species are commonplace in animal communities. Some behaviors displayed during these interspecific social interactions may be very similar to those displayed during intraspecific social interactions. However, whether functional analogies between intra- and interspecific behaviors translate at the proximate level into an overlap in their underlying endocrine mechanisms remains largely unknown.

Paternity of subordinates raises cooperative effort in cichlids.

Background: In cooperative breeders, subordinates generally help a dominant breeding pair to raise offspring. Parentage studies have shown that in several species subordinates can participate in reproduction. This suggests an important role of direct fitness benefits for cooperation, particularly where groups contain unrelated subordinates.