Juvenile and adult sea Lamprey behaviour (twitch and movement)

Sea lamprey are invasive fish species in the Laurentian Great Lakes and parasitically feed on many commercially important fishes. Sound has been used as a deterrent for invasive species, but its potential for manipulating sea lamprey behaviour in natural stream conditions is under-tested. Both the behavioural acoustic threshold and differential responses at different life stages of sea lamprey have also yet to be established. To fill in some of these literature gaps, low-frequency tones of 70 or 90 Hz were used in a laboratory setting to determine the behavioural responses of adult and juvenile sea lamprey. Both stages of sea lamprey exhibited a change in swimming behaviour and a twitch (startle) in response to both frequencies. Adults had a lower threshold to 70 Hz than 90 Hz tone bursts with juveniles showing no difference between frequencies. These thresholds and behaviours can be used in natural settings to control or impact the behaviour of sea lamprey to aid in directing lamprey m..., Data was collected using experimental tones, of 70 or 90 Hz, played at varying amplitude levels (level 0-15 on the MP3 player, 129 – 169 dB re 1 µPa, -29.95 to -34.75 dB re 1 m/s2). To determine behavioural reactions and thresholds, sea lamprey would need to be consistently still for 1 minute; sound would then be played for 1 minute, and behavioural reactions (i.e. movement/swimming) were recorded during the sound treatment; this was repeated with multiple sessions (1 minute of no movement followed by 1 minute of sound exposure) within one trial. The behavioural reaction of the sea lamprey was also recorded directly after (1-10 seconds) the sound was played for 1 minute (swimming needed to start within 1-10 seconds but would be recorded for 1 minute to look at proportion of the time spent swimming). A stepwise method was used for decibel changes between sessions within a trial, where sea lamprey were started at a low decibel level sound and no sea lamprey movement (i.e. swimming) within..., , # Juvenile and adult sea Lamprey behaviour (twitch and movement)

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.5hqbzkhgt](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.5hqbzkhgt)

## Description of the data and file structure

### Files and variables

#### File: Proportion of Twitches.xlsx

**Description:**  In total, 54 sea lamprey were used in this experiment, 22 juvenile sea lamprey and 32 adult sea lamprey. 32 trials were performed on adult sea lamprey with 17 trials with 70 Hz and 15 trials with 90 Hz. 22 trials were performed on juvenile sea lamprey, with 11 trials with 70 and 11 trials with 90 Hz tones. Sea lamprey behaviour of immediate response to sound application as a “twitch” behaviour was quantified by tail or body movement that occurred in the first second of sound presented. Adult and juvenile sea lamprey twitches were found to be significant for 70 Hz and a follow up comparison of each Level/Sound Pressure Level/Particle Acceleration to 0 was conducted with the results in this excel, along with the p...,