Research, part of a Special Feature on Effects of Roads and Traffic on Wildlife Populations and Landscape Function Impacts of Traffic Noise and Traffic Volume on Birds of Roadside Habitats

By Kirsten M. Parris, A. Schneider. 2009

280 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Roadside habitats are important for a range of taxa including plants, insects, mammals, and birds, particularly in developed countries in which large expanses of native vegetation have been cleared for agriculture or urban development. Although roadside vegetation may provide suitable habitat for many species, resident animals can be exposed to high levels of traffic noise, visual disturbance from passing vehicles, and the risk of collision with cars and trucks. Traffic noise can reduce the distance over which acoustic signals such as song can be detected, an effect known as acoustic interference or masking. Studies from the northern hemisphere show that the singing behavior of birds changes in the presence of traffic noise. We investigated the impact of traffic noise and traffic volume on two species of birds, the Grey Shrike-thrush (Colluricincla harmonica) and the Grey Fantail (Rhipidura fuliginosa), at 58 roadside sites on the Mornington Peninsula, southeastern Australia. The lower singing Grey Shrike-thrush sang at a higher frequency in the presence of traffic noise, with a predicted increase in dominant frequency of 5.8 Hz/dB of traffic noise, and a total effect size of 209 Hz. In contrast, the higher singing Grey Fantail did not appear to change its song in traffic noise. The probability of detecting each species on a visit to a site declined substantially with increasing traffic noise and traffic volume, with several lines of evidence supporting a larger effect of traffic noise. Traffic noise could hamper detection of song by conspecifics, making it more difficult for birds to establish and maintain territories, attract mates and maintain pair bonds, and possibly leading to reduced breeding success in noisy roadside habitats. Closing key roads during the breeding season is a potential, but untested, management strategy to protect threatened bird species from traffic noise and collision with vehicles at the time of year when they are most vulnerable to their impacts. Other management options include reducing the speed and/or volume of traffic on such roads to an acceptably low level. Ours is the first study to investigate the effect of traffic noise on the singing behavior of birds in the southern hemisphere.

Subfields: Developmental Biology, Ecology, Speech and Hearing

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/7df17d725f4a2295defce431724ec8dfb9d8cefe

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Citations in the corpus

Are bird species that vocalize at higher frequencies preadapted to inhabit noisy urban areas (2009, background): “…higher frequencies in cities and near loud anthropogenic noise sources, thus reducing the amount of signal masking by noise (Slabbekoorn and Peet 2003; Fernández-Juricic et al. 2005; Slabbekoorn and den Boer-Visser 2006; Wood and Yezerinac 2006; Slabbekoorn et al. 2007; Parris and Schneider 2009).”
Which birds adjust the frequency of vocalizations in urban noise (2010, background): “Another study comparing two species inhabiting similar habitats also found evidence for this hypothesis, in that only the lowfrequency species (range 1.5–4 kHz) covaried its minimum song frequency with traffic noise, but the high-frequency species (range 4–7.5 kHz) did not (Parris & Schneider 2009).”
The impacts of roads and other infrastructure on mammal and bird populations: a meta-analysis. (2010, background): “…the risk of collisions with wildlife and the stress on (breeding) individuals (due to noise and visual stimuli), both of these risks affecting animal populations (Van der Zande et al., 1980; Reijnen et al., 1996; Romin and Bissonette, 1996; Boarman and Sazaki, 2005; Parris and Schneider, 2009).”
Behavioural responses of wildlife to urban environments (2013, background): “Parris & Schneider (2009) investigated the effect of traffic noise and volume on two bird species occupying roadside habitat.”
Staying tuned: grasshoppers from noisy roadside habitats produce courtship signals with elevated frequency components (2012, result): “Similar findings were obtained in other taxa, such as mammals (Parks et al. 2011), birds (Slabbekoorn & Peet 2003; Parris & Schneider 2009; Dowling, Luther & Marra 2011) and anurans (Parris Velik-Lord & North 2009), indicating that © 2012 The Authors.”
Phenotypic plasticity affects the response of a sexually selected trait to anthropogenic noise (2013, background): “Although some authors argue that ontogenetic factors, that is, song learning, determine observed oscine song divergence (Mockford and Marshall 2009; Luther and Derryberry 2012), others discuss the relative importance of ontogenetic versus short-term plastic responses (Slabbekoorn and den BoerVisser ”
Not so sexy in the city: urban birds adjust songs to noise but compromise vocal performance (2016, unknown): “mate attraction, are susceptible to interference from anthropogenic noise (Slabbekoorn and Peet 2003; Patricelli and Blickley 2006; Nowacek et al. 2007; Nemeth and Brumm 2009; Parris and Schneider 2009; Francis et al. 2011; Lampe et al. 2012).”
Negative impact of traffic noise on avian reproductive success (2011, background): “…overlap is most dramatic for birds vocalizing at low frequencies (e.g. cuckoos, owls, woodpeckers and grouse) as traffic noise is typically loudest at lower frequencies (Pohl et al. 2009) and low sounds attenuate less with distance and vegetation density (Wiley & Richards 1978; Padgham 2004).”
Road traffic noise modifies behaviour of a keystone species (2014, background): “Correlation studies suggest that noise alters animal behaviour and reduces species richness, abundance and reproductive success (Ar evalo & Newhard, 2011; Goodwin & Shriver, 2011; Halfwerk, Holleman, Lessells, & Slabbekoorn, 2011; Parris & Schneider, 2009).”