Effects of mining truck traffic on cricket calling activity

Abstract

Anthropogenic noise is a global pollutant and several studies have identified its impact on wildlife. This research shows how the noise produced by mining affects crickets' acoustic communication. Two passive acoustic monitoring devices (SMII) were installed in a forest fragment located at 500 m from the Brucutu Mine in Brazil. Another two SMII were installed distant 2500 from the mine. The equipment was configured to record from 17:00 to 05:00 h during seven days in April 2013. The authors analyzed the spectral characteristics of acoustic activity of three species of crickets (Anaxipha sp., Gryllus sp., and a Podoscirtinae species) before, during, and after the passing of mine trucks. For comparison the authors analyzed the acoustic characteristics for Anaxipha sp. and Gryllus sp. found in the distant site. Results showed a calling interruption for all the species during truck transit. Gryllus sp. emitted calls with higher maximum frequencies, average power, and larger bandwidth in the site close to the mine. Podoscirtinae species emitted calls with lower minimum frequencies, higher average power, and large bandwidth in the close site. The authors show that insect acoustic behavior varies between areas with different levels of noise. The disruption of this behavior may have negative consequences for their reproductive success.

Soundscape of urban-tolerant crickets (Orthoptera: Gryllidae, Trigonidiidae) in a tropical Southeast Asia city, Singapore

“…In addition to environmental-driven effects on cricket acoustics, urban crickets need to compete for acoustic space (both frequency and temporal domains) with males of the same and different species to attract conspecific mates. It was previously demonstrated that the presence of anthropogenic sound leads to increased pauses between calling and call durations (Orci et al 2016;Duarte et al 2019), increased amplitude of calls (which may make them more vulnerable to predation) (Erregger and Schmidt 2018) and increased difficulty for females to locate calling males (Bent et al 2018; Gurule-Small and Tinghitella 2018). These selection pressures can also drive between-and withinindividual variations that differ from that among individuals from natural habitats.…”

“…Studies on urban-tolerant crickets typically originate in temperate or New World tropics (e.g., Orci et al 2016;Bent et al 2018;Duarte et al 2019). There remains a dearth of information about orthopteran bioacoustics in tropical Asia, including Singapore situated in the biodiverse tropical Southeast Asia.…”

Influence of Anthropogenic Sounds on Insect, Anuran and Bird Acoustic Signals: A Meta-Analysis

“…Despite the small number of studies for the group, we observed a tendency for frequencies to increase in the presence of noise, but our result was not significant. Other strategies can also be used by insects, Duarte et al (2019) showed that Gryllus sp. reduced its sounds emission by 90% in the presence of truck noise, but it was not possible to test the generality of that acoustic parameter, because this parameter has not been tested in studies that allowed performing a meta-analysis.…”

“…Anthropogenic noise is a type of sound that can be considered as a kind of environmental pollution and that can interfere with the acoustic communication of animals (Harding et al, 2019). Usually, the anthropogenic noise energy is in the range from 1 to 4 kHz (Job et al, 2016), but for example a travelling truck can occupy a noise range from 1 to 8.4 kHz (Duarte et al, 2019). Several negative effects have been attributed to anthropogenic noise, such as decreased species richness and abundance (Francis et al, 2009;Benítez-López et al, 2010;McClure et al, 2013), altered biotic interactions (Shannon et al, 2016;Phillips et al, 2019), and physiological effects on individuals such as stress due to exposure to noise (Tennessen et al, 2016).…”

Biophony in a noisy tropical urban forest fragment

“…Our previous study on the effects of mining truck traffic on cricket calling activity showed that species in noisy sites emit calls with higher average power, an indicator of sound intensity levels (Duarte et al, 2019).…”