The Behavioral Responses of a Warmwater Teleost to Different Spectra of Light-Emitting Diodes

Abstract

Freshwater ecosystems are threatened by a wide range of anthropogenic infrastructure related to hydropower, irrigation, municipal withdrawals, and industrial cooling. Technology can be used to mitigate the loss of fish associated with such infrastructure by exploiting the sensory physiology of a species through stimuli designed to manipulate their natural behaviors (e.g., to attract or repel). Technologies used for behavioral guidance often incorporate light; however, previous studies investigating light devices have focused on mercury vapor bulbs and thus have been limited in their exploration of the broader light spectra. Innovations in light-emitting diode (LED) technology provide opportunities for manipulating light spectra (i.e., color) as well as light-pulse frequency. We tested the behavioral response of Largemouth Bass Micropterus salmoides under 16 different LED color and light-pulse frequency combinations as well as in a control in which no light was emitted. Red, orange, yellow, and green were considered with four light-pulse frequencies (0, 120, 300, and 600 pulses/min). Using a large shallow arena, lateral fish movement in response to the light treatments was examined. Regardless of color or light-pulse frequency, fish were repelled by the light source. In contrast, when there was no light emitted, fish were evenly distributed throughout the arena. This work suggests that colored light accompanied with light-pulse frequencies produced by LEDs can induce an avoidance response in Largemouth Bass.

Received May 7, 2015; accepted January 5, 2016 Published online August 24, 2016

Acknowledgments

We thank Sofia Jain-Schlaepfer, Kathryn Dufour, Tristan Bourgeois, Maxime Potier, and Andrew Moraga for their fishing expertise. We are also grateful for the hospitality of all the staff at Queen’s University Biological Station and their ability to accommodate our research, especially Frank Phelan who allowed us to use the boathouse for this study. Funding for this project was provided by an Engage grant from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. S. J. Cooke is supported by the Canada Research Chairs Program, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Discovery Grant Program, and Carleton University. We thank several anonymous reviewers for their comments on this manuscript.