A phantom road experiment reveals traffic noise is an invisible source of habitat degradation
Edited by Gretchen C. Daily, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, and approved August 4, 2015 (received for review March 8, 2015)
Commentary
September 21, 2015
Significance
Using landscape-scale traffic noise playbacks to create a “phantom road,” we find that noise, apart from other factors present near roads, degrades the value of habitat for migrating songbirds. We found that nearly one third of the bird community avoided the phantom road. For some bird species that remained despite noise exposure, body condition and stopover efficiency (ability to gain body condition over time) decreased compared with control conditions. These findings have broad implications for the conservation of migratory birds and perhaps for other wildlife, because factors driving foraging behavior are similar across animals. For wildlife that remains in loud areas, noise pollution represents an invisible source of habitat degradation.
Abstract
Decades of research demonstrate that roads impact wildlife and suggest traffic noise as a primary cause of population declines near roads. We created a “phantom road” using an array of speakers to apply traffic noise to a roadless landscape, directly testing the effect of noise alone on an entire songbird community during autumn migration. Thirty-one percent of the bird community avoided the phantom road. For individuals that stayed despite the noise, overall body condition decreased by a full SD and some species showed a change in ability to gain body condition when exposed to traffic noise during migratory stopover. We conducted complementary laboratory experiments that implicate foraging-vigilance behavior as one mechanism driving this pattern. Our results suggest that noise degrades habitat that is otherwise suitable, and that the presence of a species does not indicate the absence of an impact.
Acknowledgments
We thank Kurt Fristrup for input on study design and commenting on the manuscript. We thank Jennifer Forbey, Clint Francis, Julie Heath, and Nick Fuzessery for providing comments on the manuscript. Krista Muller of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game Boise River Wildlife Management Area provided support and access to our study site. We thank Brian Leavell, Dan Mennitt, Tate Mason, David Anderson, Alexis Billings, Jarrod Zacher, Adam Keener, Randy Nuxoll, and the Intermountain Bird Observatory. We especially thank Elizeth Cinto Mejía and Mitchell Levenhagen, Andrea Ball, Luke Eberhart-Phillips, Michael Fuss, Callie Gesmundo, Greg Kaltenecker, Lindsey Lockwood, Jesus Lopez Angulo, Garrett MacDonald, Krystie Miner, Zoe Mroz, Zak Pohlen, Jessica Pollock, Eric Ripma, Jeff Roelke, Teague Scott, Micah Scholer, Jacob Shorty, Rose Swift, Elizabeth Urban, Benjamin Wright, C. R. Jepsen, and T. Dillard, who helped to develop, implement, and maintain the Phantom Road. This study was funded by the Natural Sounds and Night Skies Division of the National Park Service (CESUcH8R07060001). Boise State University Office of Research and Department of Biological Sciences, and the National Science Foundation (CNH1414171) provided additional funding. Addison Mohler and the Deer Flat National Wildlife Refuge provided support for our laboratory project.
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Published online: August 31, 2015
Published in issue: September 29, 2015
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Acknowledgments
We thank Kurt Fristrup for input on study design and commenting on the manuscript. We thank Jennifer Forbey, Clint Francis, Julie Heath, and Nick Fuzessery for providing comments on the manuscript. Krista Muller of the Idaho Department of Fish and Game Boise River Wildlife Management Area provided support and access to our study site. We thank Brian Leavell, Dan Mennitt, Tate Mason, David Anderson, Alexis Billings, Jarrod Zacher, Adam Keener, Randy Nuxoll, and the Intermountain Bird Observatory. We especially thank Elizeth Cinto Mejía and Mitchell Levenhagen, Andrea Ball, Luke Eberhart-Phillips, Michael Fuss, Callie Gesmundo, Greg Kaltenecker, Lindsey Lockwood, Jesus Lopez Angulo, Garrett MacDonald, Krystie Miner, Zoe Mroz, Zak Pohlen, Jessica Pollock, Eric Ripma, Jeff Roelke, Teague Scott, Micah Scholer, Jacob Shorty, Rose Swift, Elizabeth Urban, Benjamin Wright, C. R. Jepsen, and T. Dillard, who helped to develop, implement, and maintain the Phantom Road. This study was funded by the Natural Sounds and Night Skies Division of the National Park Service (CESUcH8R07060001). Boise State University Office of Research and Department of Biological Sciences, and the National Science Foundation (CNH1414171) provided additional funding. Addison Mohler and the Deer Flat National Wildlife Refuge provided support for our laboratory project.
Notes
This article is a PNAS Direct Submission.
See Commentary on page 11995.
Authors
Competing Interests
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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A phantom road experiment reveals traffic noise is an invisible source of habitat degradation, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.
112 (39) 12105-12109,
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1504710112
(2015).
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