image: The Drifting In Situ Chamber (DISC). In situ view of the DISC deployed off One Tree Island, Great Barrier Reef. The immersed underwater unit is symmetrical and becomes transparent, minimizing visual disturbances to the tested larva. view more
Credit: Paris CB, Atema J, Irisson J-O, Kingsford M, Gerlach G, et al. (2013) Reef Odor: A Wake Up Call for Navigation in Reef Fish Larvae. <i>PLoS ONE</i> 8(8): e72808. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0072808
Reef fish larvae are only millimeters-long when they hatch, but can smell the presence of coral reefs from several kilometers offshore, and use this odor to navigate home. The results are reported August 28 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Claire Paris from the University of Miami and colleagues from other institutions.
The researchers used a novel drifting behavioral arena to find that larvae of two families, damselfish and cardinalfish, changed swimming speed and direction in response to the smell of reef water, but water from the open ocean did not evoke a similar behavior from the larvae. Water temperature and current directions, factors normally important to navigation in the ocean, did not appear to influence the orientation of larvae in this study. The study states that reef odor could act as a wake-up call that signals settlement fish larvae to modify their activity for directions towards the reef. Other fish such as sharks and freshwater salmon are known to navigate using olfactory signals, but this is the first study to report that reef fish larvae use similar odor cues. Paris elaborates, "Unlike most animals that migrate as adults on a seasonal basis, coral reef fish undertake their longest voyage early in their life history. Here we find that coral reef fish larvae smell the reef kilometers away and then switch to a proximal cue which allows them to navigate with a landscape frame of reference."
Citation: Paris CB, Atema J, Irisson J-O, Kingsford M, Gerlach G, et al. (2013) Reef Odor: A Wake Up Call for Navigation in Reef Fish Larvae. PLoS ONE 8(8): e72808. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0072808
Financial Disclosure: Portions of this study were funded by National Science Foundation (NSF)-SGER OCE-0512167 and NSF-OTIC 1155698 to C. B. Paris, by NSF OCE 0452988 to J. Atema and G. Gerlach, by Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft GE842/6-1 to G. Gerlach, and by an Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence Grant to M.J. Kingsford. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing Interest Statement: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
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