CALL FOR SPEAKERS: Are you working with emerging technologies in freshwater monitoring?

-Remote sensing
-Drones
-Underwater video / audio
- eDNA
- Robots
- & more...

Submit an abstract to our session at @aslo.org '26 in Montreal, Canada and join the discussion via: www.aslo.org/aslo-sil-2026/

Contribute to the first global archive of soniferous freshwater life, The Freshwater Sounds Archive, and receive recognition as a co-author in a resulting data paper!

Pre-print now available. New deadline: 31st Dec, 2025.

See link 👇4 more fishsounds.net/freshwater.js

Sometimes ecology is about being in nature and observing. On a Canadian lake, there’s only one way to do that: canoe.

It was exploring the edges of habitats & the edges of periods of the day that were so interesting.

I returned full of new research ideas and questions to be answered.

What an incredible week it was of freshwater ecology at the #2025SFS conference in San Juan, PR!

Thank you @freshwaterscience.bsky.social

We had a fantastic day in the Canadian sunshine yesterday deploying @openacousticdevices.info HydroMoths in Lac Hertel, Quebec.

There’s still a lot to learn about diel & seasonal trends in freshwater soundscapes… watch this space!

Species-specific spectrograms showed distinct patterns between taxonomic groups.

The most numerous taxonomic group was arthropods (29 entries), followed by fishes (14 entries), amphibians (10 entries), macrophytes (7 entries), and a freshwater mollusk (1 entry).

Most submissions were from European countries (27 entries). The next most represented region was N. America (11 entries), followed by S. America (8 entries), Oceania and Asia (5 entries each), Africa (3 entries), and the Middle East and C. America with 1 entry each.

Ahaha just made my own 😂😅 now to do this with all my friends... thanks!

Some species are indicators of specific envi. conditions because they are fussy about where they live.

By cataloguing species-specific sounds in ponds we will be able to assess the condition of ponds based on the presence or absence of certain fussy species simply by listening.

Aquatic plants also produce sounds!

As pond weeds photosynthesize in the hot sun they release tiny oxygen bubbles through small pores in the leaf surface called stomata into the water producing strange buzzing, whirring, and popping sounds.

We suspect that different spp. of aquatic insects produce different sounds because identification books focus on sound producing anatomy to distinguish between species.

If different species use different instruments, then surely the sounds they produce will be species-specific!

Water boatmen dominate most pond soundscapes with eerie rattling sounds.

These sounds are produced by rubbing hard body parts together in a process called stridulation.

The pygmy water boatman is capable of making the loudest sound in the animal kingdom (rel. to body size)!

🧵Pond soundscapes are bursting with life and mysterious sounds!

Aquatic insects rub hard body parts together to attract mates and submerged plants release oxygen bubbles as they respire in the hot sun.