Adverse effects of noise pollution on foraging and drinking behaviour of insectivorous desert bats

Domer, Adi; Korine, Carmi; Slack, Mallory; Rojas, Indira; Mathieu, Daniela; Mayo, Aaron; Russo, Danilo

doi:10.1007/s42991-021-00101-w

Cited by 13 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

“…This response indicates that P. pipistrellus are still able to forage in conditions where acute noise pollution is present, potentially a result of their habituation to anthropogenic stressors due to their prevalence within urban environments or a result of their terminal phase calls (feeding buzzes) being of a higher frequency range than those found on music tracks. In contrast to our findings, Domer et al (2021) found that acute loud music reduced both the overall activity and foraging success of Pipistrellus kuhlii , while Hypsugo ariel showed an increase in unsuccessful drinking buzzes of 57% post‐music playback despite no significant variance in bat activity pre and post music. This highlights the potential disconnect between the number of bat passes and drinking or foraging success, as well as the species‐specific responses to acute noise pollution such as loud music.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

“…To our knowledge, no study has experimentally tested the effect of loud music on free‐living bat communities along woodland edge habitats or assessed the duration of impacts induced by music playback. While there is a paucity in research on the impacts of loud music on bat communities, previous studies have recorded a significant decrease in successful drinking attempts by bats at remote desert waterbodies subjected to music (Domer et al, 2021) as well as significant delays in dusk emergence of bats roosting in a church priory adjacent to a local music festival (Shirley et al, 2001). In this study, we used an experimental approach to assess the impact of loud music on bat activity in woodland edge habitats to disentangle any potential music impacts from other variables commonly present within a music festival setting, for example, light pollution, large crowds, other anthropogenic noise sources such as vehicles or generators.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Assessing the impact of festival music on bat activity

Hooker,

Daley,

Stone

et al. 2023

Ecol Sol and Evidence

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Sound is a critical component of an animal's habitat, where it is used to glean important environmental information from their surroundings. The modification of natural soundscapes due to the global rise in anthropogenic noise pollution over recent decades can have serious negative impacts on species fitness and survival. Nocturnal species such as bats are reliant on sound for many aspects of their life history and are, therefore, highly sensitive to anthropogenic noise. Music festivals are a source of unregulated and potentially harmful, acute noise pollution; however, they have become ubiquitous across our landscapes throughout the summer months and are increasingly being held in settings important for wildlife. Using an experimental approach, we provide the first evidence of the negative impacts of music festivals on bat activity in a habitat that represents a typical festival setting, that is, woodland edge. We found that loud music playback alone can reduce the activity of bats even in the absence of other anthropogenic factors commonly associated with music festivals such as lighting and habitat disturbance. Activity of Nyctalus/Eptesicus spp. was reduced along woodland edge habitats exposed to loud music, whereas no effect was recorded for Myotis spp., Pipistrellus pygmaeus and Pipistrellus pipistrellus compared with quiet nights. We also provide the first evidence of the spatial scale of negative effects from festival music on activity for P. pygmaeus as well as highlighting differential responses between cryptic species. In light of the paucity of research or guidance into acute noise impacts on nocturnal biodiversity, we outline the potential negative impacts of music festivals for bats. We show that music alone can reduce the activity of bats even in the absence of other anthropogenic factors commonly associated with music festivals, which could potentially fragment important habitats for certain species, leading to a degradation of functional connectivity across the landscape.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Assessing the impact of festival music on bat activity

Hooker,

Daley,

Stone

et al. 2023

Ecol Sol and Evidence

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“…When a task is difficult and attention-demanding, foraging performance can be constrained and the detection of threats may be hindered (Dukas and Kamil, 2000). Noise has also been suggested to act as a distractor and narrow the attention in bats, whereby it reduces hunting performance in biosonar-mediated prey capture and drinking (Allen et al, 2021;Domer et al, 2021). For porpoises, it is plausible that attention on biosonar-mediated prey capture could similarly reduce vigilance to predators or fishing nets.…”

Section: Ecological Relevancementioning

confidence: 99%

Directional biosonar beams allow echolocating harbour porpoises to actively discriminate and intercept closely spaced targets

Malinka

Rojano-Doñate

Madsen

2021

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Echolocating toothed whales face the problem that high sound speeds in water mean that echoes from closely-spaced targets will arrive at time delays within their reported auditory integration time of some 264 µsec. Here we test the hypothesis that echolocating harbour porpoises cannot resolve and discriminate targets within a clutter interference zone given by their integration time. To do this, we trained two harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena) to actively approach and choose between two spherical targets at four varying inter-target distances (13.5, 27, 56 and 108 cm) in a two-alternative forced-choice task. The free-swimming, blindfolded porpoises were tagged with a sound and movement tag (DTAG4) to record their echoic scene and acoustic outputs. The known ranges between targets and the porpoise, combined with the sound levels received on target-mounted hydrophones revealed how they controlled their acoustic gaze. When targets were close together and the discrimination task was more difficult due to smaller echo time delays and lower echo level ratios between the targets, buzzes were longer and started from farther away, source levels were reduced at short ranges, and the porpoises clicked faster, scanned across the targets more, and delayed making their discrimination decision until closer to the target. We conclude that harbour porpoises can resolve and discriminate closely-spaced targets, suggesting a clutter rejection zone much shorter than their auditory integration time, and that such clutter rejection is greatly aided by spatial filtering with their directional biosonar beam.

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“…However, at the same time, man-made structures, such as buildings, roofs and tunnels (artificial roosts) with their warmer microclimatic conditions, may benefit species which are not necessarily dependent upon tree roosts 19 . In addition, urban anthropogenic noise may affect the foraging success for some species, as noise frequencies often overlap with the frequencies of sounds emitted by bat prey 3,[26][27][28] . Similarly, noise might affect communication with conspecifics by masking some bat species' social calls 26 .…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Unexpected bat community changes along an urban–rural gradient in the Berlin–Brandenburg metropolitan area

Starik,

Gygax,

Göttert

2024

Sci Rep

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Urbanization gradients are increasingly used in ecological studies to discover responses of species communities to different intensities of human-induced habitat transformation. Here, we investigated patterns of bat communities against the background of different urbanization levels using a priori defined urbanization categories based on distance classes (5 km intervals) along a linear transect from the urban core of the city of Berlin westwards into the rural outskirts of the state of Brandenburg. Using linear-mixed effects models, we found that “distance class”, as a proxy for urbanization level, is a meaningful and suitable predictor of bat species richness and diversity. We observed an unexpectedly sudden increase in bat species richness and diversity and changes in species-specific activity levels relatively close to the urban center at the transition between urban and peri-urban areas. This change suggests a relevant influence of the peri-urban areas as a “buffer zone” for specific bat species not able to adapt to the heavily modified inner core of the metropolitan area. Although we could demonstrate that anthropogenic noise and artificial light have the potential to predict the variability of bat species activity along the urban–rural gradient, the actual influence on observed shifts in the bat community needs further research.

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Adverse effects of noise pollution on foraging and drinking behaviour of insectivorous desert bats

Cited by 13 publications

References 37 publications

Assessing the impact of festival music on bat activity

Assessing the impact of festival music on bat activity

Directional biosonar beams allow echolocating harbour porpoises to actively discriminate and intercept closely spaced targets

Unexpected bat community changes along an urban–rural gradient in the Berlin–Brandenburg metropolitan area

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