Noise Pollution Impacts a Wide Range of Species, Study Finds - Smithsonian

-

Traffic blaring on the ground, planes roaring through the sky, ships bellowing through the oceans—where humans go, they often make a lot of noise. Excess noise is known to have adverse health effects for humans, and according to a wide-ranging study published in Biology Letters, man-made noise should be considered a “major global pollutant” for animals, too.

Previous research has shown how noise pollution impacts specific creatures. Seals, for instance, may be deafened by the underwater rumble of shipping traffic, while stressful noise levels seem to cut short the life expectancy of zebra finches. But the new study, co-authored by Hansjoerg P. Kunc and Rouven Schmidt of Queen's University Belfast, is a meta-analysis, combining data from multiple studies to take a broad look at how noise pollution impacts a variety of species.

The analysis covered 108 studies of 109 species, which were divided into seven groups: amphibians, anthropods, birds, mammals, fish, reptiles and molluscs. Both terrestrial and aquatic animals were included in the analysis. According to the Guardian’s Nicola Davis, the researchers looked at studies that measured changes in species’ behavior or other traits, like hormone levels, both before and after exposure to noise. “The size of any shift from pre-noise behaviour was then calculated on a scale,” Davis explains. “The latest research took all of these calculations and put them together.”

All seven groups were impacted by anthropogenic noise, the researchers found, as were a wide range of species—from tiny insects to large marine mammals. In other words, Kunc and Schmidt tell Agence France-Presse, the issue should be viewed as the “majority of species responding to noise rather than a few species being particularly sensitive to noise.”

The study was too large-scale to delve into the ramifications of noise pollution; it assessed whether noise affects animals, but did not explore whether that impact is positive or negative. The answer is likely to change depending on context. Traffic noise, for instance, reduces the hunting efficiency of bats, which rely on acoustic cues to find prey. That’s bad news for the predators, but not such bad news for the critters they hunt.

Yet the researchers stress that noise pollution poses threats that could impact the survival of many species. Amphibians, birds, insects and mammals all rely on sound to convey essential information, like mating and warning signals. Fish larvae find their homes by following the sounds of coral reefs. Owls, like bats, use acoustic signals to locate prey. All of these fundamental behaviors are at risk if animals can’t hear properly over booming anthropogenic noise.

Changes caused by noise pollution do not occur in a bubble. Some birds, for instance, will steer clear of excessively noisy areas during migration, the researchers found. And this in turn reduces species richness—something that is vital to the health of the planet.

The researchers say that their study provides “the first comprehensive quantitative empirical evidence that noise affects many aquatic and terrestrial species.” And that is crucial from a conservation standpoint, because “it shows that noise affects not only a few species that we need to pay attention to but many species that inhabit very different ecosystems.”

Like this article?
SIGN UP for our newsletter



https://ift.tt/2D7lzZF

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

All In The Family: Maine Mother & Son Charged in Massive Drug Bust

-
Image
corso dog :: Article Creator Woman Hospitalized After Attack By 2 Dogs At Same Edmonton Home Where Boy Died: Lawyer UPDATE: On April 15, 2024, the City of Edmonton provided an update on the fatal attack. It said that prior to the deadly incident on April 1, "the city had no lawful basis to remove the dogs from the home." The city added that "all prior complaints about the dogs involved in this incident were investigated thoroughly and appropriate action was taken in accordance with the applicable legislation." The city also said a review found that its staff "acted appropriately in accordance with our standard practices and in compliance with the relevant legal constraints given the nature of past complaints and reports." A woman was hospitalized after being attacked in February by two large Cane Corso dogs at the same home where an 11-year-old boy was killed last week, the woman's lawyer told Global News. "I...
Read more

Rare Frogs And Illegal Drugs - Palisades Hudson Financial Group

-
Image
Colombian conservationist Ivan Lozano has hit on a brilliantly promising strategy to protect his country’s rare and endangered amphibians. His plan: Flood the market with them. Lozano is not hunting rare frogs in Colombia’s Andean forests. He is raising them himself and selling them at prices designed to undercut poachers and smugglers. If he can raise the frogs cheaply enough, and in large enough numbers, he might manage to drive down the market price to the point that poachers no longer find it worthwhile to harvest and smuggle the creatures onto the black markets. Lozano told The Associated Press that his company also encourages collectors to breed their own frogs. Picture yourself as a poacher. If the government toughens the legal penalties and steps up enforcement, you will shrug your shoulders; legal risks are a basic cost of doing business. Since the demand for your product already exists among foreign collectors and other buyers, tougher enforcement merely reduces supply a...
Read more

Burn scars, winter storms threaten rare and endangered species in San Gabriel Mountains - The Bakersfield Californian

-
Image
LOS ANGELES — Up until a few weeks ago, the West Fork of the San Gabriel River was one of the most abundant wildlife habitats in Los Angeles County, a secluded and rugged area defined by its steep peaks, lush canyons and mixture of rare and endangered species. Recently however, a team of federal biologists and forest rangers was aghast when it visited the stream following the Bobcat fire, which has burned more than 115,000 acres in the heart of the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument. Terrain that once resembled a High Sierra granite gorge now looked like ground zero after a nuclear explosion, and the usually clean mountain air was sharp with the stench of smoke. Particularly unsettling were the bare and ashen slopes that were now primed to dissolve under pounding winter storms. A heavy mudslide, experts said, could reverse decades of conservation efforts by inundating the last outposts for such federally protected species as the Santa Ana sucker fish and Southern California m...
Read more