Animal perception in gravel-bed rivers: scales of sensing and environmental controls on sensory information

Abstract

Animals make decisions based on the sensory information that they obtain from the environment and other organisms within that environment. In a river, this information is transported, transmitted, masked, and filtered by fluvial factors and processes, such as relative roughness and turbulent flow. By interpreting the resultant signals, animals decide on the suitability of habitat and their reaction to other organisms. While a great deal is known about the sensory biology of animals, only limited attention has been paid to the environmental controls on the propagation of sensory information within rivers. Here, the potential transport mechanisms and masking processes of the sensory information used by animals in gravel-bed rivers are assessed by considering how the physical nature of sensory signals are affected by river hydromorphology. In addition, the physical processes that animals have the potential to directly perceive are discussed. Understanding the environmental phenomena that animals directly perceive will substantially improve understanding of what controls animal distributions, shifting emphasis from identifying correlations between biotic and abiotic factors to a better appreciation of causation, with benefits for successful management.

Influence of habitat heterogeneity and bed surface complexity on benthic invertebrate diversity in a gravel‐bed river

“…Larvae of a few millimetres in length are experiencing and responding to flow hydraulics at very small scales. Characterizing habitat at this organism scale has long been a major challenge, although technological and methodological developments are permitting progressively finer scale characterization (Buffin‐Bélanger, Rice, Reid, & Lancaster, ; Johnson & Rice, ), including measurement devices once constrained to laboratory settings now being deployed in the field (Biggs et al, ). Thus, the gap between the observational scales possible and the fine scale at which plants and animals experience flow is becoming smaller.…”

“…Rice, 2014), including measurement devices once constrained to laboratory settings now being deployed in the field(Biggs et al, 2019). Thus, the gap between the observational scales possible and the fine scale at which plants and animals experience flow is becoming smaller.…”

Three‐dimensional numerical simulations of smooth, asymmetrically roughened, and baffled culverts for upstream passage of small‐bodied fish

“…Roughness‐induced effects on fish swimming performance were investigated in a number of recent studies (Baki, Zhu, & Rajaratnam, ; Cassan, Tien, Courret, Laurens, & Dartus, ; Lacey & Rennie, ). Low‐velocity regions, and associated flow features, were observed and taken advantage of by the fish (David, Calluaud, Pineau, & Texier, ; Johnson & Rice, ). New evidences on the role of roughness are sometimes conflicting.…”

Soundpeaking – Hydropeaking induced changes in river soundscapes

“…However, the ability of fish to utilize acoustic stimuli (auditory scene analysis) for orientation or to locate suitable habitat is poorly understood (Johnson, Rice, & Richardson, ). Research to date indicates that sound is probably a crucial stimulus for migration and positioning.…”