Does Chlorophyll-A Turn Up the Volume? Exploring the Relationship between Oceanographic Parameters and Coral Reef Soundscapes

Abstract

Remote coral reefs offer unique opportunities to study marine environments removed from anthropogenic stressors. There is an interest in studying whether coral reef biological activities are influenced by oceanographic variables. Previous work has failed to relate how metrics like chlorophyll-a, sea surface temperature, irradiance, and wave energy flux influence biological signals. With the use of long term passive acoustic monitoring, soundscape components are separated into different frequency bands and the relationships between coral reef soundscapes and oceanographic variables are explored through generalized linear models and generalized additive models. The results elucidate to the usefulness of snapping shrimp as indicators of coral reef health, confirming the association of snapping shrimp acoustic activity in relation to temperature changes and revealing the reaction to changes in chlorophyll-a . This study shows the importance of using multidisciplinary approaches to environmental questions.