Temporal structure of sound affects behavioural recovery from noise impact in European seabass

•We exposed seabass to sounds varying in intermittency and amplitude fluctuation.•The fish startled and increased swimming speed, swimming depth and group cohesion.•Behavioural recovery to baseline from the exposure happened within one hour.•Intermittent noise prolonged the recovery for twice as long as continuous noise.•Sound temporal structure is important in underwater noise impact assessments. Human activities in and around waters generate a substantial amount of underwater noise, which may negatively affect aquatic life including fish. In order to better predict and assess the consequences of the variety of anthropogenic sounds, it is essential to examine what sound features contribute to an impact. In this study, we tested if sounds with different temporal structure resulted in different behavioural changes in European seabass. Groups of four fish were exposed in an outdoor basin to a series of four sound treatments, which were either continuous or intermittent, with either consistent or fluctuating amplitude. The behavioural changes of the fish were analyzed by a video-tracking system. All sound treatments elicited similar behavioural changes, including startle responses, increased swimming speed, increased group cohesion and bottom diving. However, with all other sound conditions being the same, intermittent exposure resulted in significantly slower behavioural recovery to pre-exposure levels compared to continuous exposure. Our findings imply that the temporal structure of sound is highly relevant in noise impact assessments: intermittent sounds, such as from pile driving, may have a stronger behavioural impact on fish than continuous sounds, such as from drilling, even though the latter may have higher total accumulated energy. This study urges regulatory authorities and developers to pay more attention to the influence of temporal structure when assessing noise impacts. However, more studies are needed to examine other sound parameters and to determine the generality of our observations in other species and in other outdoor water bodies.