Sensory pollutants alter bird phenology and fitness across a continent

Senzaki, Masayuki; Barber, Jesse R.; Phillips, Jennifer N.; Carter, Neil; Cooper, Caren B.; Ditmer, Mark A.; Fristrup, Kurt M.; McClure, Christopher J. W.; Mennitt, Daniel J.; Tyrrell, Luke P.; Vukomanovic, Jelena; Wilson, Ashley A.; Francis, Clinton D.

doi:10.1038/s41586-020-2903-7

Cited by 129 publications

(109 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…Tropical and temperate populations may also differ strongly in their responses to lighting depending on the degree to which variation in light regimes is a phenological cue. Many, but not all, temperate bird species appear to strongly advance their breeding season in response to lighting (Kempenaerns et al 2010; Senzaki et al 2020). For hearing, low absolute hearing thresholds would seem to be a prerequisite for elevated noise sensitivity.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Geospatial models of skyglow have been developed (Falchi et al 2016; Duriscoe et al 2018), and Longcore et al (2018) created an approach to predict species’ responses to spectral outputs based on behavioral and visual characteristics. Spatially explicit estimates of anthropogenic noise for the United States were developed by Mennitt & Fristrup (2016) and have been successfully applied to explaining how noise influences variation in avian reproductive success across North America (Senzaki et al 2020). However, these geospatial models confront emerging challenges.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…First, we only considered negative impacts from lighting and noise. However, future work should consider all effects, such as increased foraging opportunities for crepuscular species exposed to lighting (Santos et al 2010) and enhanced ability to track resource peaks which are increasingly shifted temporally due to climate change (Senzaki et al 2020). We also did not assess the impacts on invertebrates, an important group of animals that contributes a large percentage to many vertebrate diets, that are highly sensitive to changes in environmental cues (Klink et al 2020; Owens et al 2020), although 8% of respondents identified as experts of invertebrate species.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nonetheless, recent research has also shown that variation in these sensory pollutants better explains patterns of habitat selection than common ecological variables, such as landcover (Kleist et al 2017), and better reflects the dynamic human footprint relative to other measurements (e.g., housing density; Ditmer et al 2020b). Biological and ecological traits have frequently been linked with species’ vulnerability to environmental change and threat of extinction (Chown 2012; Foden et al 2013), but with limited treatment in the context of vulnerabilities to lighting and noise (primarily avian species; see Francis 2015; Senzaki et al 2020). Therefore, for species where scientific studies on the impacts of sensory pollutants are scarce or nonexistent, assessing relationships among relevant traits and taxa is most practical for forecasting species’ responses, and developing policies and conservation actions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Light and noise pollution impacts specialist wildlife species disproportionately

Ditmer

Francis

Barber

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Global expansion of lighting and noise pollution alters how animals receive and interpret environmental cues. Yet we lack a cross-taxon understanding of how animal traits influence species vulnerability to this growing phenomenon. This knowledge is needed to improve the design and implementation of policies that mitigate or reduce sensory pollutants. We present results from an expert knowledge survey that quantified the relative influence of several ecological, anatomical, and physiological traits on the vulnerability of terrestrial vertebrates to elevated levels of anthropogenic lighting and noise. Our findings, based on 280 responses, highlight the increasing recognition among experts that sensory pollutants are important to consider in management and conservation decisions. Participant responses show mounting threats to species with narrow niches; especially habitat specialists, nocturnal species, and those with the greatest ability to differentiate environmental visual and auditory cues. Our results call attention to the threat specialist species face and provide a generalizable understanding of which species require additional considerations when developing conservation policies and mitigation strategies in a world altered by expanding sensory pollutant footprints. We provide a step-by-step example for translating these results to on-the-ground conservation planning using two species as case studies.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Light and noise pollution impacts specialist wildlife species disproportionately

Ditmer

Francis

Barber

et al. 2021

Preprint

Self Cite

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“…However, one of the potential impacts on ecosystems and species due to urban expansion is often overlooked in analyses focused on area-based metrics-specifically, the kind of anthropogenic disturbances occurring in transition zones from artificial landscape to natural landscapes. For example, anthropogenic noise and night lighting in urban area will alter bird phenology and fitness [29]. The built-up area featuring concentrated population and intensive human activities inevitably disturbs the surrounding natural landscapes and species living within or nearby them [30].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Quantitatively Assessing Ecological Stress of Urbanization on Natural Ecosystems by Using a Landscape-Adjacency Index

Lin

Jones

et al. 2021

Remote Sensing

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Urban spatial expansion poses a threat to regional ecosystems and biodiversity directly through altering the size, shape, and interconnectivity of natural landscapes. Monitoring urban spatial expansion using traditional area-based metrics from remote sensing provides a feasible way to quantify this regional ecological stress. However, variation in landscape-adjacency relationships (i.e., the adjacency between individual landscape classes) caused by urban expansion is often overlooked. In this study, a novel edge-based index (landscape-adjacency index, LAdI) was proposed based on the spatial-adjacency relationship between landscape patches to measure the regional ecological stress of urban expansion on natural landscapes. Taking the entire Yangtze River Delta Urban Agglomerations (YRD) as a study area, we applied the LAdI for individual landscape classes (Vi) and landscape level (LV) to quantitatively assess change over time in the ecological stress of YRD from 1990 to 2015 at two spatial scales: municipal scale and 5 km-grid scale. The results showed that the vulnerable zones (LV ≥ 0.6) were mainly distributed in the north of the YRD, and cultivated land was the most vulnerable natural landscape (Vi ≥ 0.6) at the 5 km-grid scale. The most vulnerable landscape at the municipal scale was cultivated land in 19 of 26 cities in each period, and that in the remaining 7 cities varied at distinct urbanization stages. We used scatter diagrams and Pearson correlation analysis to compare the edge-based LAdI with an area-based index (percent of built-up area, PB) and found that: LV and PB had a significant positive correlation at both the municipal scale and 5 km-grid scale. But there were multiple LVs with different values corresponding to one PB with the same value at the 5 km-grid scale. Both indexes could represent the degree of urban expansion; however, the edge-based metric better quantified ecological stress under different urban-sprawl patterns sharing the same percent of built-up area. As changes in land use affect both the size and edge effect among landscape patches, the area-based PB and the edge-based LAdI should be applied together when assessing the ecological stress caused by urbanization.

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Increased lead and glucocorticoid concentrations reduce reproductive success in house sparrows along an urban gradient

White

Heppner

Ouyang

2022

Ecological Applications

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Urbanization is increasing at a rapid pace globally. Understanding the links among environmental characteristics, phenotypes, and fitness enables researchers to predict the impact of changing landscapes on individuals and populations. Although avian reproductive output is typically lower in urban compared with natural areas, the underlying reasons for this discrepancy may lie at the intersection of abiotic and biotic environmental and individual differences. Recent advances in urban ecology highlight the effect of heavy metal contamination on stress physiology. As high levels of glucocorticoid hormones decrease parental investment, these hormones might be the link to decreased reproductive success in areas of high environmental pollution. In this study, we aimed to identify which abiotic stressors are linked to avian reproductive output in urban areas and whether this link is mediated by individual hormone levels. We used fine‐scaled estimates (2 m2 spatial resolution) of nighttime light, noise, and urban density to assess their impacts on the physiological condition of adult house sparrows (Passer domesticus). We measured circulating levels of lead and glucocorticoid concentrations in 40 breeding pairs of free‐living house sparrows and related these physiological traits to reproductive success. Using structural equation modeling, we found that increased urban density levels linked directly to increased plasma corticosterone and lead concentrations that subsequently led to decreased fledgling mass. Sparrows with increased lead concentrations in plasma also had higher corticosterone levels. Although urban areas may be attractive due to decreased natural predators and available nesting sites, they may act as ecological traps that increase physiological damage and decrease fitness. To illustrate, avian development is strongly explained by parental corticosterone levels, which vary significantly in response to urban density and lead pollution. With fine‐scale ecological mapping for a species with small home ranges, we demonstrated the presence and impacts of urban stressors in a small city with high human densities.

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Sensory pollutants alter bird phenology and fitness across a continent

Cited by 129 publications

References 60 publications

Light and noise pollution impacts specialist wildlife species disproportionately

Light and noise pollution impacts specialist wildlife species disproportionately

Quantitatively Assessing Ecological Stress of Urbanization on Natural Ecosystems by Using a Landscape-Adjacency Index

Increased lead and glucocorticoid concentrations reduce reproductive success in house sparrows along an urban gradient

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