Urban bioacoustics: it's not just noise

Warren, Paige S.; Katti, Madhusudan; Ermann, Michael; Brazel, Anthony J.

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2005.07.014

Cited by 390 publications

(324 citation statements)

References 82 publications

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“…Many studies on attention use birds, which have been shown to divide time (Lima & Bednekoff 1999) and attention (Dukas 2004) between antipredator vigilance and foraging. Birds assess risk using both acoustic and visual cues (Caro 2005), and we know that anthropogenic sounds (Warren et al 2006) and lights (Rich & Longcore 2006) interfere with a variety of their behaviours. Thus, the two modalities we used on hermit crabs also seem appropriate for testing the distracted prey hypothesis on birds.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One factor we are systematically changing is the acoustic environment; humans are creating many novel sounds (Warren et al 2006;Slabbekoorn & Ripmeester 2008), and these sounds may have large effects (Warren et al 2006;Hatch & Wright 2007;Wright et al 2007). A variety of studies have shown how anthropogenic noise may affect mating, communication and antipredator behaviour.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Anthropogenic noise affects risk assessment and attention: the distracted prey hypothesis

Chan¹,

Giraldo-Perez²,

Smith³

et al. 2010

Biol. Lett.

351

275

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Many studies have focused on the effects of anthropogenic noise on animal communication, but only a few have looked at its effect on other behavioural systems. We designed a playback experiment to test the effect of noise on predation risk assessment. We found that in response to boat motor playback, Caribbean hermit crabs (Coenobita clypeatus) allowed a simulated predator to approach closer before they hid. Two hypotheses may explain how boat noise affected risk assessment: it masked an approaching predator's sound; and/or it reallocated some of the crabs' finite attention, effectively distracting them, and thus preventing them from responding to an approaching threat. We found no support for the first hypothesis: a silent looming object still got closer during boat motor playbacks than during silence. However, we found support for the attentional hypothesis: when we added flashing lights to the boat motor noise to further distract the hermit crabs, we were able to approach the crabs more closely than with the noise alone. Anthropogenic sounds may thus distract prey and make them more vulnerable to predation.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anthropogenic noise affects risk assessment and attention: the distracted prey hypothesis

Chan¹,

Giraldo-Perez²,

Smith³

et al. 2010

Biol. Lett.

351

275

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Many ecological effects of roads have been identified, such as loss and fragmentation of habitat; pollution of air, water, and soil; mortality of animals hit by passing vehicles; and acoustic interference caused by traffic noise (Forman et al 2003, Warren et al 2006. The noise of passing traffic can extend more than 4 km from a road, depending on the volume and speed of traffic and the prevailing weather conditions (Department of Transport Welsh Office 1988).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Frogs Call at a Higher Pitch in Traffic Noise

Parris¹,

Velik-Lord²,

North³

2009

E&S

243

156

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ABSTRACT. Male frogs call to attract females for mating and to defend territories from rival males. Female frogs of some species prefer lower-pitched calls, which indicate larger, more experienced males. Acoustic interference occurs when background noise reduces the active distance or the distance over which an acoustic signal can be detected. Birds are known to call at a higher pitch or frequency in urban noise, decreasing acoustic interference from low-frequency noise. Using Bayesian linear regression, we investigated the effect of traffic noise on the pitch of advertisement calls in two species of frogs, the southern brown tree frog (Litoria ewingii) and the common eastern froglet (Crinia signifera). We found evidence that L. ewingii calls at a higher pitch in traffic noise, with an average increase in dominant frequency of 4.1 Hz/dB of traffic noise, and a total effect size of 123 Hz. This frequency shift is smaller than that observed in birds, but is still large enough to be detected by conspecific frogs and confer a significant benefit to the caller. Mathematical modelling predicted a 24% increase in the active distance of a L. ewingii call in traffic noise with a frequency shift of this size. Crinia signifera may also call at a higher pitch in traffic noise, but more data are required to be confident of this effect. Because frog calls are innate rather than learned, the frequency shift demonstrated by L. ewingii may represent an evolutionary adaptation to noisy conditions. The phenomenon of frogs calling at a higher pitch in traffic noise could therefore constitute an intriguing trade-off between audibility and attractiveness to potential mates.

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“…Several studies have found a reduced number of species or individuals with increasing noise (e.g., Rheindt 2003;Francis et al 2009;Blickley et al 2012;McClure et al 2013), and some studies have suggested a link between noise and reduced breeding success (Halfwerk et al 2011a;Kight et al 2012;Schroeder et al 2012). By masking the acoustic signals of birds, noise can impair communication and potentially interfere during social interactions (Brumm and Slabbekoorn 2005;Patricelli and Blickley 2006;Warren et al 2006;Ríos-Chelén 2009;Brumm and Zollinger 2013;Slabbekoorn 2013;Gil and Brumm 2014). Direct evidence that noisy environments can affect the outcome of female mate choice and male-male vocal interactions is now accumulating (Swaddle and Page 2007;des Aunay et al 2014;McMullen et al 2014); these effects may contribute to the observed reduction in avian richness, abundance, and poor reproductive success.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Anthropogenic noise is associated with changes in acoustic but not visual signals in red-winged blackbirds

Ríos-Chelén

Lee

Patricelli

2015

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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Some birds in noisy areas produce songs with higher frequency and/or amplitude and altered timing compared to individuals in quiet areas. These changes may function to increase the efficacy of acoustic signals by reducing masking by noise. We collected audio recordings of redwinged blackbirds and measured noise levels. We found that males in noisier places produced songs with fewer syllables and slower repeat rate of elements in some components (rattles). Birds may also improve the efficacy of communication in noise by increasing usage of other signaling modalities. Red-winged blackbirds also perform a visual display in different intensities while singing. We also tested whether this species performs the visual display in different intensities according to current noise levels, and predicted that if the efficacy of songs is impaired in noisy places, males would compensate by performing a more intense visual display. For this, we also collected visual recordings from the same males from which we obtained acoustic recordings. We found no association between acoustic noise and the intensity of the visual display; thus, our results do not support the idea that males are using the visual display as a backup signal to communicate under acoustic noise. We discuss some possible explanations of this negative finding and for the observed noise-related changes in song length and rattle rate in the context of communication under noise.

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Urban bioacoustics: it's not just noise

Cited by 390 publications

References 82 publications

Anthropogenic noise affects risk assessment and attention: the distracted prey hypothesis

Anthropogenic noise affects risk assessment and attention: the distracted prey hypothesis

Frogs Call at a Higher Pitch in Traffic Noise

Anthropogenic noise is associated with changes in acoustic but not visual signals in red-winged blackbirds

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