coral reef acoustics · field recordings
Coral reefs are among the most acoustically rich environments on Earth. Sound travels five times faster underwater than through air, making acoustics the primary sensory channel through which reef organisms communicate, locate habitat, and navigate settlement. These recordings capture three distinct signatures from the same reef ecosystem.
Damselfish produce rapid-burst pulse trains via sonic muscle contractions adjacent to the swim bladder. The call carries a fundamental frequency around 200 Hz with clear harmonics extending to ~1.4 kHz — visible in the spectrogram as stacked horizontal bands repeating at roughly 2 Hz.
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Reef soundscapes peak around the new moon, when reduced ambient light synchronizes nocturnal spawning and foraging. The dominant texture is the broadband crack of snapping shrimp (Alpheidae), whose collective cavitation generates a near-continuous hiss across the frequency spectrum. Beneath it, chorusing fish contribute periodic low-frequency pulse trains in the 150–600 Hz range.
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A second ambient recording captured in June 2024, revealing the layered acoustic texture of the reef in finer detail. Alpheid snapping shrimp dominate the high-frequency register with their characteristic broadband cavitation clicks, while fish pulse trains mark the lower register with a slower, more deliberate rhythm — a snapshot of the reef's living acoustic signature.
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Spectrograms are animated simulations modeled on the characteristic acoustic signatures of each sound type. Source audio © original field recordings.