Uploaded August 2025 | Updated September 2026, 14 hours ago
Dr. Ashlee Lillis
Abstract Title: Not so shrimple: how spatiotemporal variation in the ocean's noisiest animal impedes it's use as an easy ecoacoustic metric
Co-Authors: Michelle Caputo; Jenni Stanley
Author affiliations: University of New England; University of Waikato
Abstract: Snapping shrimp of the genera Alpheus and Synalpheus, also known as pistol or cracker shrimp, are the most ubiquitous sound source in coastal habitats. Most often visually cryptic, dense populations of small snapping shrimp inhabit crevices in rubble, sponges, coral heads, kelp holdfasts, and other invertebrates, creating the audible background crackling of near-shore soundscapes worldwide. Snapping sounds are impossible to ignore in studies of benthic soundscapes and have been promoted as a possible ecological indicator of habitat health. However, our development and application of new snap detection algorithms to geographically diverse, high resolution passive acoustic datasets reveals tremendous unexplained complexity in shrimp-driven soundscapes. To explore the challenge of using this dominant acoustic signal as a monitoring metric, here we present a comparison of snap counting methods and ecological interpretations using datasets from East Africa, the Caribbean, and New Zealand, and highlight the fascinating variation in snapping patterns at multiple scales.
Dr. Ashlee Lillis
Abstract Title: Not so shrimple: how spatiotemporal variation in the ocean's noisiest animal impedes it's use as an easy ecoacoustic metric
Co-Authors: Michelle Caputo; Jenni Stanley
Author affiliations: University of New England; University of Waikato
Abstract: Snapping shrimp of the genera Alpheus and Synalpheus, also known as pistol or cracker shrimp, are the most ubiquitous sound source in coastal habitats. Most often visually cryptic, dense populations of small snapping shrimp inhabit crevices in rubble, sponges, coral heads, kelp holdfasts, and other invertebrates, creating the audible background crackling of near-shore soundscapes worldwide. Snapping sounds are impossible to ignore in studies of benthic soundscapes and have been promoted as a possible ecological indicator of habitat health. However, our development and application of new snap detection algorithms to geographically diverse, high resolution passive acoustic datasets reveals tremendous unexplained complexity in shrimp-driven soundscapes. To explore the challenge of using this dominant acoustic signal as a monitoring metric, here we present a comparison of snap counting methods and ecological interpretations using datasets from East Africa, the Caribbean, and New Zealand, and highlight the fascinating variation in snapping patterns at multiple scales.
