Data set for the paper: Fish responses to underwater sounds depend on auditory adaptations

We compiled data on fish hearing acuity (<strong>Fish.hearing.compilation.csv</strong>) and adaptations and provided a portrait of how anthropogenic noise compares to natural sounds in different freshwater soundscapes (<strong>Underwater.soundscape.csv</strong>). We then conducted a sound-enrichment experiment to evaluate the effect of motorboat noise exposure on fish community structure, and the extent to which changes in species abundances were linked to auditory adaptations (see <strong>Sound.enrichment.experiment.fish catches and soundscape.csv</strong> for fish species caught in the experiment and the soundscape of the sound-enrichment treatment). We found that species with more specialized auditory structures (see <strong>Hearing adaptation.species.csv</strong> for hearing adaptations of species caught in the experiment) have more sensitive hearing (lower threshold and increased best frequency) and were captured less often in sound-enriched traps, indicating avoidance behavior. Our findings highlight the importance of considering species’ sensorial adaptations when evaluating the community-scale effects of noise pollution on the fish community.