![]() ![]() Locating favorable settlement sites in a vast ocean environment following days to months in the water column presents a significant challenge. Larval habitat selection and settlement to suitable juvenile and adult habitat is critical for subsequent survival and reproductive success, and ultimately shapes species distributions and their population dynamics ( Gaines & Roughgarden, 1985 Caley et al., 1996). Most marine benthic communities are established and maintained via the settlement of larvae, following the development and dispersal of planktonic early life stages of fish and invertebrates. These results provide the first field evidence that soundscape cues may attract the larval settlers of a reef-building estuarine invertebrate. ![]() Oyster larval recruitment was significantly higher on larval collectors exposed to oyster reef sounds compared to no-sound controls. Here we show in a field experiment that the free-swimming larvae of an estuarine invertebrate, the eastern oyster, respond to the addition of replayed habitat-related sounds. There is growing evidence that the biological and physical sounds associated with adult habitats (i.e., the “soundscape”) influence larval settlement and habitat selection however, the significance of acoustic cues is rarely tested. Larval dispersal and settlement patterns are driven by a combination of physical oceanography and behavioral responses of larvae to a suite of sensory cues both in the water column and at settlement sites. Marine seafloor ecosystems, and efforts to restore them, depend critically on the influx and settlement of larvae following their pelagic dispersal period. ![]()
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