{"id":{"repo_id":"vcu","oai_identifier":"oai:scholarscompass.vcu.edu:etd-1138"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/vcu/oai:scholarscompass.vcu.edu:etd-1138","repository":{"repo_id":"vcu","name":"Virginia Commonwealth University","base_url":"https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/do/oai/"},"display":{"title":"Variation in sound production of the blue catfish, Ictalurus furcatus.","abstract":"The blue catfish, Ictalurus furcatus, is an invasive species introduced to Virginia in 1974 and is the largest catfish in the United States. Like other Ictalurids, they are capable of producing disturbance calls via stridulation of the pectoral spine. These sounds can be made in air and water, and catfish can be preyed upon by both aerial and underwater predators. I characterized these putative distress calls by recording them in air and in the fish’s natural habitat. Sounds exhibited a wide variation in acoustic parameters relative to fish ontogeny: larger fish produced higher amplitude sounds with lower frequency bands. Sweep and pulse duration increased with fish size, but pulse rate and the number of pulses per sweep decreased. Sounds were more robust in water with a 1400 fold increase in sound pressure compared to air. Frequency response was much more peaked underwater with a considerable amount of high frequency absorption. These sounds appear to be better adapted to water, suggesting that their use in air may be inconsequential.","abstract_html":"The blue catfish, Ictalurus furcatus, is an invasive species introduced to Virginia in 1974 and is the largest catfish in the United States. Like other Ictalurids, they are capable of producing disturbance calls via stridulation of the pectoral spine. These sounds can be made in air and water, and catfish can be preyed upon by both aerial and underwater predators. I characterized these putative distress calls by recording them in air and in the fish’s natural habitat. Sounds exhibited a wide variation in acoustic parameters relative to fish ontogeny: larger fish produced higher amplitude sounds with lower frequency bands. Sweep and pulse duration increased with fish size, but pulse rate and the number of pulses per sweep decreased. Sounds were more robust in water with a 1400 fold increase in sound pressure compared to air. Frequency response was much more peaked underwater with a considerable amount of high frequency absorption. These sounds appear to be better adapted to water, suggesting that their use in air may be inconsequential.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Ghahramani, Zachary"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Science","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"Biology","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Michael Fine"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2010,"date_issued":"2010-08-06T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2010-08-06T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:53:26Z","subjects":["animal communication","sound production","agonistic interaction","bioacoustics","invasive species","fish","Virginia","Biology","Life Sciences"],"languages":[],"rights":["© The Author"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/139"],"render_values":[{"text":"https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/139","href":"https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/139","code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://doi.org/10.25772/S4XH-7W75","outbound_label":"DOI","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Michael Fine"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Ghahramani, Zachary"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2015-08-16T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["Biology"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Science"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["animal communication","sound production","agonistic interaction","bioacoustics","invasive species","fish","Virginia","Biology","Life Sciences"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["© The Author"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://doi.org/10.25772/S4XH-7W75","https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/139"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["The blue catfish, Ictalurus furcatus, is an invasive species introduced to Virginia in 1974 and is the largest catfish in the United States. Like other Ictalurids, they are capable of producing disturbance calls via stridulation of the pectoral spine. These sounds can be made in air and water, and catfish can be preyed upon by both aerial and underwater predators. I characterized these putative distress calls by recording them in air and in the fish’s natural habitat. Sounds exhibited a wide variation in acoustic parameters relative to fish ontogeny: larger fish produced higher amplitude sounds with lower frequency bands. Sweep and pulse duration increased with fish size, but pulse rate and the number of pulses per sweep decreased. Sounds were more robust in water with a 1400 fold increase in sound pressure compared to air. Frequency response was much more peaked underwater with a considerable amount of high frequency absorption. These sounds appear to be better adapted to water, suggesting that their use in air may be inconsequential."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Variation in sound production of the blue catfish, Ictalurus furcatus."]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Michael Fine"],"dc:creator":["Ghahramani, Zachary"],"dc:date.available":["2015-08-16T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["The blue catfish, Ictalurus furcatus, is an invasive species introduced to Virginia in 1974 and is the largest catfish in the United States. Like other Ictalurids, they are capable of producing disturbance calls via stridulation of the pectoral spine. These sounds can be made in air and water, and catfish can be preyed upon by both aerial and underwater predators. I characterized these putative distress calls by recording them in air and in the fish’s natural habitat. Sounds exhibited a wide variation in acoustic parameters relative to fish ontogeny: larger fish produced higher amplitude sounds with lower frequency bands. Sweep and pulse duration increased with fish size, but pulse rate and the number of pulses per sweep decreased. Sounds were more robust in water with a 1400 fold increase in sound pressure compared to air. Frequency response was much more peaked underwater with a considerable amount of high frequency absorption. These sounds appear to be better adapted to water, suggesting that their use in air may be inconsequential."],"dc:identifier":["https://doi.org/10.25772/S4XH-7W75","https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/139"],"dc:rights":["© The Author"],"dc:subject":["animal communication","sound production","agonistic interaction","bioacoustics","invasive species","fish","Virginia","Biology","Life Sciences"],"dc:title":["Variation in sound production of the blue catfish, Ictalurus furcatus."],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Biology"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Science"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:53:26Z"}