title: Convergent Aspects of Acoustic Communication in Darters, Sculpins, and Gobies.
abstract: Darters (Perciformes, Percidae), sculpins (Perciformes, Cottidae), and gobioids (Gobiiformes, Gobioidei) exhibit convergent life history traits, including a benthic lifestyle and a cavity nesting spawning mode. Soniferous species within these taxa produce pulsed and/or tonal sounds with peak frequencies below 200 Hz (with some exceptions), primarily in agonistic and/or reproductive contexts. The reduced or absent swim bladders found in these taxa limit or prevent both hearing enhancement via pressure sensitivity and acoustic amplification of the contracting sonic muscles, which are associated with the skull and pectoral girdle. While such anatomies constrain communication to low frequency channels, optimization of the S/N (signal-to-noise) ratio in low frequency channels is evident for some gobies, as measured by habitat soundscape frequency windows, nest cavity sound amplification, and audiograms. Similar S/N considerations are applicable to many darter and sculpin systems. This chapter reviews the currently documented diversity of sound production in darters, sculpins, and gobioids within a phylogenetic context, examines the efficacy of signal transmission from senders to receivers (sound production mechanisms, audiograms, and masking challenges), and evaluates the potential functional significance of sound attributes in relation to territorial and reproductive behaviours.
authors.affiliation: Fish Biodiversity Lab, School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, 36849, USA. jnz0002@tigermail.auburn.edu.
authors.forename: Jeffrey N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Zeyl
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze Ambientali, Informatica e Statistica, Center for Estuarine, CoastAL Marine Sciences (CEMAS), Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, Castello 2737/b, 30122, Venice, Italy.
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Malavasi
authors.affiliation: Fish Biodiversity Lab, School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, 36849, USA.
authors.forename: Daniel E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Holt
authors.affiliation: Fish Biodiversity Lab, School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, 36849, USA.
authors.forename: Patricia
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Noel
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosciences, University of Parma, Parma, Italy.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lugli
authors.affiliation: Fish Biodiversity Lab, School of Fisheries, Aquaculture and Aquatic Sciences, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, 36849, USA.
authors.forename: Carol E
authors.initials: CE
authors.lastname: Johnston
mesh_terms: D000162:Acoustics; D000400:Air Sacs / Q000502:physiology; D000819:Animal Communication; D000818:Animals; D001309:Auditory Threshold / Q000502:physiology*; D005075:Biological Evolution; D017753:Ecosystem; D006309:Hearing / Q000502:physiology*; D010473:Perciformes / Q000145:classification / Q000502:physiology*; D013016:Sound; D013018:Sound Spectrography; D013045:Species Specificity
keywords: Cottidae; Etheostoma; Fish hearing; Fish sound production; Gobioidei