Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Evidence for selective avoidance of traffic noise by anuran amphibians

Evidence for selective avoidance of traffic noise by anuran amphibians Roads create many challenges for conservation, and amphibians are particularly vulnerable to their negative effects. This experiment evaluates the impact that traffic noise has on amphibian populations, specifically anurans (frogs and toads). It is thought that traffic noise may act to reduce population abundances; however, it is difficult to disentangle the impact of noise from other road effects, such as roadkill and chemical pollution. To test this, we created a ‘phantom road’ by playing different traffic noise treatments in three roadless areas and measured resulting anuran abundance using vocalizations as a proxy. We also tested the vocalizations of one species, the Oak Toad Anaxyrus quercicus for changes in response to noise. We found that broadcasting traffic noise caused a significant reduction in vocalizations heard, but, intriguingly, we did not observe this effect when the traffic noise was digitally altered to remove frequencies that overlap with anuran vocalizations. This suggests that avoidance of traffic noise could be a tactic that increases the success of communication with conspecifics. We also found that Oak Toads increase the redundancy of their calls in response to traffic noise, but not in response to the altered noise. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Animal Conservation Wiley

Evidence for selective avoidance of traffic noise by anuran amphibians

Grace, M. K.; Noss, R. F.
Animal Conservation , Volume 21 (4) – Aug 1, 2018
Download PDF
9 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/wiley/evidence-for-selective-avoidance-of-traffic-noise-by-anuran-amphibians-ZCtBfMUX4y

References (48)

Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
Copyright © 2018 The Zoological Society of London
ISSN
1367-9430
eISSN
1469-1795
DOI
10.1111/acv.12400
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Roads create many challenges for conservation, and amphibians are particularly vulnerable to their negative effects. This experiment evaluates the impact that traffic noise has on amphibian populations, specifically anurans (frogs and toads). It is thought that traffic noise may act to reduce population abundances; however, it is difficult to disentangle the impact of noise from other road effects, such as roadkill and chemical pollution. To test this, we created a ‘phantom road’ by playing different traffic noise treatments in three roadless areas and measured resulting anuran abundance using vocalizations as a proxy. We also tested the vocalizations of one species, the Oak Toad Anaxyrus quercicus for changes in response to noise. We found that broadcasting traffic noise caused a significant reduction in vocalizations heard, but, intriguingly, we did not observe this effect when the traffic noise was digitally altered to remove frequencies that overlap with anuran vocalizations. This suggests that avoidance of traffic noise could be a tactic that increases the success of communication with conspecifics. We also found that Oak Toads increase the redundancy of their calls in response to traffic noise, but not in response to the altered noise.

Journal

Animal Conservation – Wiley

Published: Aug 1, 2018

Keywords: ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

There are no references for this article.