Social context shapes acoustic signalling in the territorial damselfish Stegastes fuscus

[en] Acoustic communication plays an important role in social interactions in reef fishes, but how signals vary with behavioural context remains poorly understood for many species. We characterised the acoustic repertoire of the Brazilian damselfish Stegastes fuscus using synchronised underwater audio-video recordings and tested how sound features vary across social behaviours. Sounds were recorded during agonistic and courtship-related interactions, and temporal and spectral acoustic parameters were measured to compare acoustic structure among contexts. Differences between behaviours were primarily found in temporal features: Courtship sounds were longer and contained more pulses than agonistic sounds. These results show that S. fuscus conveys social context mainly through modulation of temporal organisation rather than spectral properties. Our findings indicate that a single call type can be flexibly adjusted to signal behavioural context during territorial defence and courtship. By documenting the acoustic repertoire of a dominant territorial herbivore, this study highlights how social context structures sound production in damselfishes.

Research Center/Unit :

FOCUS - Freshwater and OCeanic science Unit of reSearch - ULiège

Disciplines :

Zoology

Author, co-author :

Lessa, Aléxia A ; Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ecologia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil ; Reef Systems Ecology and Conservation Lab, Department of Marine Biology, Federal Fluminense University, Niterói, Brazil

Barroso, Viviane ; Reef Systems Ecology and Conservation Lab, Department of Marine Biology, Federal Fluminense University, Niterói, Brazil

Ferreira, Carlos E L ; Reef Systems Ecology and Conservation Lab, Department of Marine Biology, Federal Fluminense University, Niterói, Brazil

Parmentier, Eric ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Freshwater and OCeanic science Unit of reSearch (FOCUS)

Language :

English

Title :

Social context shapes acoustic signalling in the territorial damselfish Stegastes fuscus

Publication date :

14 September 2026

Journal title :

Journal of Fish Biology

ISSN :

0022-1112

eISSN :

1095-8649

Publisher :

Wiley, England

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Additional URL :

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/jfb.70651

Funders :

CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior
FAPERJ - Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro

Available on ORBi :

since 15 September 2026

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