VIBRASSAY: A standardized protocol to study the ecophysiological responses of benthic invertebrates to substrate vibrations for underwater noise risk assessment

Abstract

Anthropogenic noise has increased over the last decades in marine ecosystems, due to diverse human activities (e.g., ships, pile driving, drilling, dredging, underwater explosions, and seismic testing). Nevertheless, there is currently a knowledge gap regarding the effects of noise pollution, especially substrate vibrations, on benthic species. Within this context, we developed a standardized experimental method to study the ecophysiological responses of benthic invertebrates exposed to substrate vibrations, following a dose–response approach. Our protocol enables the exposure of individuals to different treatments of substrate vibrations (three acceleration levels and a control) with several aquariums (i.e., replicates) exposed simultaneously for each treatment. Four independent vibrating structures were built, allowing for the aquarium replicates to be exposed to the different treatments simultaneously without vibration propagation between structures. The objective of the study was therefore to fully characterize the vibrating structures, for frequencies ranging from 5 to 50 Hz, to ensure precise knowledge of the vibration exposure levels inside the aquariums. Especially, intra-aquarium variability of the vibration signal in function of the frequency was estimated as well as long-term signal stability on 48 h. Finally, we presented an example of application of our protocol on great scallops, suggesting that our system can be used to generate dose–response relationships between substrate vibration levels and biological responses.