Songs of the city: noise-dependent spectral plasticity in the acoustic phenotype of urban birds
TL;DR: The acoustic phenotype of urban birds provides a great model system to study fundamental processes such as causes and consequences of environmentally induced signal changes, ‘cultural assimilation’, and the relationship between phenotypic and genotypic evolution.
About: This article is published in Animal Behaviour.The article was published on 2013-05-01. It has received 240 citations till now.
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TL;DR: A systematic and standardised review of the scientific literature published from 1990 to 2013 on the effects of anthropogenic noise on wildlife, including both terrestrial and aquatic studies shows that terrestrial wildlife responses begin at noise levels of approximately 40’dBA, and 20% of papers documented impacts below 50 dBA.
Abstract: Global increases in environmental noise levels – arising from expansion of human populations, transportation networks, and resource extraction – have catalysed a recent surge of research into the effects of noise on wildlife. Synthesising a coherent understanding of the biological consequences of noise from this literature is challenging. Taxonomic groups vary in auditory capabilities. A wide range of noise sources and exposure levels occur, and many kinds of biological responses have been observed, ranging from individual behaviours to changes in ecological communities. Also, noise is one of several environmental effects generated by human activities, so researchers must contend with potentially confounding explanations for biological responses. Nonetheless, it is clear that noise presents diverse threats to species and ecosystems and salient patterns are emerging to help inform future natural resource-management decisions. We conducted a systematic and standardised review of the scientific literature published from 1990 to 2013 on the effects of anthropogenic noise on wildlife, including both terrestrial and aquatic studies. Research to date has concentrated predominantly on European and North American species that rely on vocal communication, with approximately two-thirds of the data set focussing on songbirds and marine mammals. The majority of studies documented effects from noise, including altered vocal behaviour to mitigate masking, reduced abundance in noisy habitats, changes in vigilance and foraging behaviour, and impacts on individual fitness and the structure of ecological communities. This literature survey shows that terrestrial wildlife responses begin at noise levels of approximately 40 dBA, and 20% of papers documented impacts below 50 dBA. Our analysis highlights the utility of existing scientific information concerning the effects of anthropogenic noise on wildlife for predicting potential outcomes of noise exposure and implementing meaningful mitigation measures. Future research directions that would support more comprehensive predictions regarding the magnitude and severity of noise impacts include: broadening taxonomic and geographical scope, exploring interacting stressors, conducting larger-scale studies, testing mitigation approaches, standardising reporting of acoustic metrics, and assessing the biological response to noise-source removal or mitigation. The broad volume of existing information concerning the effects of anthropogenic noise on wildlife offers a valuable resource to assist scientists, industry, and natural-resource managers in predicting potential outcomes of noise exposure.
531 citations
Cites background from "Songs of the city: noise-dependent ..."
...Shifts in vocal rate, call intensity, call type, call frequency (as reviewed by Slabbekoorn, 2013), the timing of singing (Fuller, Warren & Gaston, 2007), and duration of calling (Diaz, Parra & Gallardo, 2011) have been studied extensively among birds (and marine mammals) to explore how vocal…...
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...Sensitivity to noise varies widely across taxa (Kaseloo & Tyson, 2004; Brumm & Slabbekoorn, 2005; Morley, Jones & Radford, 2013; Slabbekoorn, 2013), and may also vary depending upon context, sex, and life history (Ellison et al....
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...…et al., 2010; Kight & Swaddle, 2011), or targeted specific taxonomic groups such as birds (Patricelli & Blickley, 2006; Slabbekoorn & Ripmeester, 2008; Ortega, 2012; Slabbekoorn, 2013), fish (Slabbekoorn et al., 2010; Radford, Kerridge & Simpson, 2014), and invertebrates (Morley et al., 2013)....
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..., 2010; Kight & Swaddle, 2011), or targeted specific taxonomic groups such as birds (Patricelli & Blickley, 2006; Slabbekoorn & Ripmeester, 2008; Ortega, 2012; Slabbekoorn, 2013), fish (Slabbekoorn et al....
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...Sensitivity to noise varies widely across taxa (Kaseloo & Tyson, 2004; Brumm & Slabbekoorn, 2005; Morley, Jones & Radford, 2013; Slabbekoorn, 2013), and may also vary depending upon context, sex, and life history (Ellison et al., 2012; Francis & Barber, 2013)....
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TL;DR: It is presented both theoretical and empirical arguments to show that behavioural adjustments to urban habitats are widespread and that they may potentially be important in facilitating resource use, avoiding disturbances and enhancing communication.
510 citations
TL;DR: Several existing frameworks are suggested that are potentially useful for explaining behavioural responses to HIREC: signal detection theory, adaptive plasticity theory, extended reaction norms and cost–benefit theory on variation in learning.
419 citations
Cites background from "Songs of the city: noise-dependent ..."
...Birds from forested habitats with flowing streams often experience lowfrequency background noise and thus have evolved higherfrequency calls (Slabbekoorn 2013); these species do not need to adjust their call frequencies to avoid urban noise....
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TL;DR: The goal is to provide a means by which the role of plasticity in adaptive evolution can be assessed and present much-needed key criteria to allow tests in diverse, natural systems.
Abstract: Many biologists are asking whether environmentally initiated phenotypic change (i.e., ‘phenotypic plasticity’) precedes, and even facilitates, evolutionary adaptation. However, this ‘plasticity-first’ hypothesis remains controversial, primarily because comprehensive tests from natural populations are generally lacking. We briefly describe the plasticity-first hypothesis and present much-needed key criteria to allow tests in diverse, natural systems. Furthermore, we offer a framework for how these criteria can be evaluated and discuss examples where the plasticity-first hypothesis has been investigated in natural populations. Our goal is to provide a means by which the role of plasticity in adaptive evolution can be assessed.
347 citations
Cites background from "Songs of the city: noise-dependent ..."
...Agelaius phoeniceus (red-wing blackbird), Parus major (great tit), and other urban birds Urban landscapes Song 1,3 [94,95]...
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors identify emerging hypotheses on how urbanization drives eco-evolutionary dynamics and study how human-driven microevolutional changes interact with ecological processes and provide new insights for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem function over the long term.
Abstract: A great challenge for ecology in the coming decades is to understand the role humans play in eco-evolutionary dynamics. If, as emerging evidence shows, rapid evolutionary change affects ecosystem functioning and stability, current rapid environmental change and its evolutionary effects might have significant implications for ecological and human wellbeing on a relatively short time scale. Humans are major selective agents with potential for unprecedented evolutionary consequences for Earth's ecosystems, especially as cities expand rapidly. In this review, I identify emerging hypotheses on how urbanization drives eco-evolutionary dynamics. Studying how human-driven micro-evolutionary changes interact with ecological processes offers us the chance to advance our understanding of eco-evolutionary feedbacks and will provide new insights for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem function over the long term.
332 citations
References
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TL;DR: Human alteration of Earth is substantial and growing as discussed by the authors, between one-third and one-half of the land surface has been transformed by human action; the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere has increased by nearly 30 percent since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution; more atmospheric nitrogen is fixed by humanity than by all natural terrestrial sources combined; more than half of all accessible surface fresh water is put to use by humanity; and about one-quarter of the bird species on Earth have been driven to extinction.
Abstract: Human alteration of Earth is substantial and growing. Between one-third and one-half of the land surface has been transformed by human action; the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere has increased by nearly 30 percent since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution; more atmospheric nitrogen is fixed by humanity than by all natural terrestrial sources combined; more than half of all accessible surface fresh water is put to use by humanity; and about one-quarter of the bird species on Earth have been driven to extinction. By these and other standards, it is clear that we live on a human-dominated planet.
8,831 citations
"Songs of the city: noise-dependent ..." refers background in this paper
...The associated spread of urban areas around the world causes dramatic habitat alterations and introduces novel environmental conditions for animals within and surrounding new and expanding cities (Vitousek et al. 1997; Marzluff 2001; Faeth et al. 2005; Warren et al. 2006)....
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TL;DR: Suggestions are offered to statisticians and editors of ecological journals as to how ecologists' under- standing of experimental design and statistics might be improved.
Abstract: Pseudoreplication is defined. as the use of inferential statistics to test for treatment effects with data from experiments where either treatments are not replicated (though samples may be) or replicates are not statistically independent. In ANOVA terminology, it is the testing for treatment effects with an error term inappropriate to the hypothesis being considered. Scrutiny of 176 experi- mental studies published between 1960 and the present revealed that pseudoreplication occurred in 27% of them, or 48% of all such studies that applied inferential statistics. The incidence of pseudo- replication is especially high in studies of marine benthos and small mammals. The critical features of controlled experimentation are reviewed. Nondemonic intrusion is defined as the impingement of chance events on an experiment in progress. As a safeguard against both it and preexisting gradients, interspersion of treatments is argued to be an obligatory feature of good design. Especially in small experiments, adequate interspersion can sometimes be assured only by dispensing with strict random- ization procedures. Comprehension of this conflict between interspersion and randomization is aided by distinguishing pre-layout (or conventional) and layout-specifit alpha (probability of type I error). Suggestions are offered to statisticians and editors of ecological j oumals as to how ecologists' under- standing of experimental design and statistics might be improved.
7,808 citations
TL;DR: A review by Czech and colleagues (2000) finds that urbanization endangers more species and is more geographically ubiquitous in the mainland United States than any other human activity, emphasizing the uniquely far-reaching transformations that accompany urban sprawl as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: A the many human activities that cause habitat loss (Czech et al. 2000), urban development produces some of the greatest local extinction rates and frequently eliminates the large majority of native species (Vale and Vale 1976, Luniak 1994, Kowarik 1995, Marzluff 2001). Also, urbanization is often more lasting than other types of habitat loss. Throughout much of New England, for example, ecological succession is restoring forest habitat lost from farming and logging, whereas most urbanized areas in that region not only persist but continue to expand and threaten other local ecosystems (Stein et al. 2000). Another great conservation challenge of urban growth is that it replaces the native species that are lost with widespread “weedy” nonnative species. This replacement constitutes the process of biotic homogenization that threatens to reduce the biological uniqueness of local ecosystems (Blair 2001). Urban-gradient studies show that, for many taxa, for example, plants (Kowarik 1995) and birds and butterflies (Blair and Launer 1997), the number of nonnative species increases toward centers of urbanization, while the number of native species decreases. The final conservation challenge of sprawl is its current and growing geographical extent (Benfield et al. 1999). A review by Czech and colleagues (2000) finds that urbanization endangers more species and is more geographically ubiquitous in the mainland United States than any other human activity. Species threatened by urbanization also tend to be threatened by agriculture, recreation, roads, and many other human impacts, emphasizing the uniquely far-reaching transformations that accompany urban sprawl. About 50% of the US population lives in the suburbs, with another 30% living in cities (USCB 2001). Over 5% of the total surface area of the United States is covered by urban and other built-up areas (USCB 2001). This is more land than is covered by the combined total of national and state parks and areas preserved by the Nature Conservancy. More ominously, the growth rate of urban land use is accelerating faster than land preserved as parks or conservation areas by the Conservancy (figure 1). Much of this growth is from the spread of suburban housing. It is estimated, for example, that residential yards occupy 135,000 acres in the state of Missouri (MDC 2002). This residential landscape represents nearly 1% of the total area of Missouri and is nearly three times the area occupied by Missouri state parks. Here I review the growing literature that documents how urban (and suburban) expansion harms native ecosystems. This knowledge can aid conservation efforts in two major ways. One is through the use of ecological principles—such as preserving remnant natural habitat and restoring modified habitats to promote native species conservation—to reduce the impacts of urbanization on native ecosystems. Rare and endangered species sometimes occur in urbanized habitats (Kendle and Forbes 1997, Godefroid 2001) and thus could be conserved there. Managing the large amount of residential vegetation (1% of the state area, as noted above) in ways that promote native plants and animals could also make a significant contribution to conservation.
3,096 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a basic conservation challenge is that urban biota is often quite diverse and very abundant, and that, because so many urban species are immigrants adapting to city habitats, urbanites of all income levels become increasingly disconnected from local indigenous species and their natural ecosystems.
2,823 citations
"Songs of the city: noise-dependent ..." refers background in this paper
...These processes cause urban areas to harbour very similar avian communities across vast geographical areas independent of the original habitat type; a phenomenon labelled ‘urban homogenization of the avifauna’ (Clergeau et al. 2006; McKinney 2006; Devictor et al. 2007)....
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