Sprague, Mark W.Bier, MartinMajka, MaceijLuczkovich, Joseph J.2025-07-012025-07-012025-07-03Mark W. Sprague, Martin Bier, Maceij Majka, and Joseph J. Luczkovich, "Modeling Call Synchronization in Sciaenidae Fish Aggregations: Is There an Advantage?", The Effects of Noise on Aquatic Life, Prague (2025).http://hdl.handle.net/10342/14185Synchronization of oscillating systems occurs when there is a coupling interaction causing the motions of the system to synchronize over time. First observed (Williams, Kitanov and Langford, 2017) between mechanical clocks hanging next to each other, synchronization occurs in many biological systems (Henry et al., 2021) from calling frogs and flashing fireflies to claw-waving crabs. The mathematics of synchronization are well established. The Kuramoto model (Strogatz, 2000) treats the coupling between oscillators as a perturbation, and each oscillator “feels” the average of the other oscillations resulting in a phase transition between unsynchronized and synchronized behavior as the coupling strength increases. We have created a preliminary model of synchronized calling in an aggregation of weakfish (Cynoscion regalis) that is based on a successful model (Ramírez-Ávila et al., 2019) for firefly synchronization. Male weakfish produce courtship calls consisting of pulse trains lasting ~ 0.5 s followed by a silent period of ~ 0.7 s. In our model the calling weakfish adjust their silent period based on the loudness of the other weakfish calls they hear until their silent period synchronizes with the silent periods of the other calling weakfish. Our model aggregation contained 1000 calling weakfish distributed in a 30 m radius cylinder in water of depth 5 m. This simulated aggregation produced a sound with peak pressure at the center 2.4 dB greater than for an unsynchronized aggregation with the same spatial distribution calling randomly. The minimum pressure of the synchronized aggregation was 12 dB less than for the unsynchronized aggregation. One advantage of a synchronized aggregation is that the signal will propagate farther (by a factor of 1.7 for cylindrical spreading in our model) before falling below the background pressure. Also, the enhanced differences between the loud and quiet portions of the synchronized call could be a signal to females of the presence of an aggregation and not random noise. In this presentation, we will show the details of the synchronization model and compare the characteristics of synchronized and unsynchronized aggregations. We will also present simulated aggregation calls of both synchronized and unsynchronized aggregations. Finally, we will propose a study to determine if and to what extent synchronization occurs in sciaenids.en-USPoster