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New research reveals sound of deep-water animal migration
by Staff Writers
New Orleans OR (SPX) Feb 23, 2016


New research finds there is a distinct sound coming from a massive community of fish, shrimp, jellies and squid as they travel up and down from the depths of the ocean to the water's surface to feed.

This sound could be serving as a "dinner bell" for these deep-water organisms that play a key role in ocean food webs and the global carbon cycle, and could help scientists better understand this mysterious ecosystem, according to new research being presented here Monday.

A vast number of animals, including fish, shrimp and squid, live in the ocean's mesopelagic zone - the waters 200 to 1000 meters (660 to 3300 feet) below the surface.

Taken together, these organisms weigh approximately 10 billion tons and are a major link in the food chain between microscopic plankton and top predators like tuna, birds and marine mammals, according to Simone Baumann-Pickering, an assistant research biologist at the University of California, in San Diego.




The researchers aren't yet certain which animals in the mesopelagic zone are creating the sound but small bony fish that are abundant in the zone are the most likely suspects, Baumann-Pickering said.

The communal sound is three to six decibels louder than the background noise of the ocean, making it difficult for the human ear to distinguish, but it could provide scientists with a new way to study these organisms and give them new insights into this ecosystem, she said.

"It's not that loud, it sounds like a buzzing or humming, and that goes on for an hour to two hours, depending on the day," said Baumann-Pickering, who will present the new research Monday Feb. 22 at the 2016 Ocean Sciences Meeting co-sponsored by the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography, The Oceanography Society and the American Geophysical Union.

It is well-known that dolphins, whales and other marine mammals use sound to communicate underwater, but acoustic communication among smaller animals, like those living in the mesopelagic area, is more difficult to hear and hasn't been well studied by scientists.


If mesopelagic animals convey information through sound, learning more about who is communicating and what they're communicating about could change scientists' understanding of how the ecosystem fits together, Baumann-Pickering said. Using acoustics to monitor these organisms could also help scientists study how these animals could be affected by climate change, and the consequences of potential commercial fishing projects, she said.

The new research may also give scientists insight into predators who feed on the animals that live in the mesopelagic zone. The sound the organisms emit is likely only detectable a few hundred meters to a few kilometers (or up to a little more than half a mile) away, but that may be enough to signal predators listening nearby that their prey is on the move, Baumann-Pickering said.




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