Increased attenuation and reverberation are associated with lower maximum frequencies and narrow bandwidth of bird songs in cities

Phillips, Jennifer N.; Rochefort, Catherine; Lipshutz, Sara E.; Derryberry, Graham E.; Luther, David; Derryberry, Elizabeth P.

doi:10.1007/s10336-020-01751-2

Cited by 19 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…The timing of dawn choruses is affected not only by urban-related stressors (anthropogenic noise, ALAN) and meteorological factors, but also potentially by the abundance of conspecific neighbours (Hodgson et al 2018, Stuart et al 2019, perceived predation risk (Santema et al 2019), body condition (Kacelnik & Krebs 1982) and transmission properties of the urban environment (Phillips et al 2020). Predation pressure has been shown to increase with urbanization (Fischer et al 2012); yet, potential influences of predation on dawn chorus timing remain untested.…”

Section: Future Directions and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This would better represent the differing acoustic transmission traits across cities (e.g. Phillips et al 2020) by considering their environmental heterogeneity. Thus, future studies should consider urbanization intensity gradient frameworks to explore the influence of a wider array of urbanization conditions on avian dawn singing routines.…”

Section: Future Directions and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Due to the environmental heterogeneity of urban settings (e.g. differing land-uses, urbanization intensity gradients, spatio-temporal artificial light and noise variations), together with their acoustic complexity (Warren et al 2006), the AAH has provided a fundamental framework to understand how animals deal with predominant anthropogenic noise by adjusting their acoustic phenotype to increase the effectiveness of their acoustic signals (Slabbekoorn & Peet 2003, Luther & Baptista 2010, Phillips et al 2020. Some bird species have been shown to deal with anthropogenic noise in cities by adjusting the amplitude, minimum frequency, syntax and timing of songs (Slabbekoorn & Peet 2003, Brumm 2004, Luther & Baptista 2010, Slabbekoorn 2013, Gil et al 2015, Berm udez-Cuamatzin et al 2018.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A global synthesis of the impacts of urbanization on bird dawn choruses

Marín-Gómez

MacGregor-Fors

2021

Ibis

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Urbanization drives changes in acoustic communication systems in some animal species. Noise and light pollution are among the main urban factors known to disrupt the timing and structure of avian singing behaviour. Despite our understanding of the ways in which urbanization can drive variations in avian acoustic communication, our ability to generalize the underlying causes of such variation and its consequences is still limited. Here, we reviewed the literature focused on the study of avian dawn choruses in urban settings at a global scale. Our findings reveal that avian dawn chorus research has focused on the impact of anthropogenic noise on dawn chorus traits (i.e. timing, peak, song output, song frequencies); relationships between light pollution and chorus timing; the effects of temperature, cloudiness, moonlight and natural light on chorus timing; relationships between nocturnal noise and light, and dawn chorus timing; the effects of chemical pollution and supplementary feeding on dawn chorus activity; and ecological patterns of dawn choruses in soundscapes across urban-non-urban gradients. We identified important knowledge gaps in the study of avian dawn choruses in urban settings and thus suggest future research directions, including frameworks (e.g. the urbanization intensity gradient) and consideration of a wider array of urban conditions and variables. Given the complexity of urban settings, we encourage further studies to address the role that all sources of pollution can have on avian acoustic communication at dawn. Additionally, a central question to resolve is whether the function of avian dawn choruses in urban areas differs, and if so how, from non-urban counterparts. Given that most research has been performed across Holarctic cities and towns, studies from tropical and subtropical regions are needed if we aim to understand the phenomenon globally. Finally, studies at the community-and soundscape-level across cities could advance understanding of the way in which urban birds use the acoustic space during the most critical singing time period, dawn.

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Section: Future Directions and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Future Directions and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A global synthesis of the impacts of urbanization on bird dawn choruses

Marín-Gómez

MacGregor-Fors

2021

Ibis

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“…Indeed, higher frequencies may be more audible in the din of urban traffic noise (Pohl et al 2012), which is typically low in frequency with most energy concentrated below 2 kHz (Can et al 2010). The idea of noise-related microevolutionary shifts is a special case of the more general acoustic adaptation hypothesis, which argues that bird song features become adapted to the sound transmission characteristics of the environment (Morton 1975;Boncoraglio and Saino 2007;Phillips et al 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Chronic exposure to urban noise during the vocal learning period does not lead to increased song frequencies in zebra finches

Liu

Zollinger

Brumm

2020

Behav Ecol Sociobiol

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It has often been observed that birds sing at a higher pitch in cities and other areas that are polluted with intense low-frequency noise. How this pattern arises remains unclear though. One prevailing idea is that songbirds adjust song frequencies to environmental noise profiles through developmental plasticity via vocal learning. However, the conclusions of previous studies testing this hypothesis are inconsistent. Here we report the findings from two song learning experiments with zebra finches (Taenopygia guttata), in which we exposed young birds to anthropogenic noise during their sensitive vocal learning period. Unlike previous studies that addressed this issue, we did not use constant synthetic noise but natural urban noise with its typical amplitude fluctuations that was broadcast at realistic sound levels. We found that noise-exposed males in neither experiment developed higher pitched songs compared to control males. This suggests that the natural fluctuations between higher and lower noise levels in cities may allow young birds to exploit relatively quiet moments to hear their tutors and themselves, permitting them to make accurate copies of even low-frequency song elements. Significance statement If animals are to persist in urban habitats, they often must adjust their behavior to the altered conditions. Birds in cities are often observed to sing at a higher pitch, but we are largely ignorant of how this phenomenon arises. We investigated whether low-frequency traffic noise interferes with the song learning of birds so that they develop higher pitched songs. Accordingly, we played back natural traffic noise from urban bird habitats to young birds during their learning period and then analyzed their adult songs. We found that birds that learned their songs in noise did not sing at higher frequencies compared to control males that learned their song with no noise exposure. Our results show that typical traffic noise in cities may not be sufficient to interfere with vocal learning in a way that birds develop higher-pitched songs.

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“…The observed cline of song and morphometric variation did not impede song to match vegetation structure variables. Vegetation type and habitat are considered to be main factors shaping the evolution of birdsong , Goretskaia et al 2018, Phillips et al 2020. In particular, dense vegetation has been shown to promote the evolution of songs with lower frequencies, narrower frequency ranges and longer intervals between sound elements .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aplicación de los conceptos de la genética del paisaje a la conservación de las aves de montaña = Application of landscape genetics concepts to the conservation of mountain birds

Fernández¹

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Increased attenuation and reverberation are associated with lower maximum frequencies and narrow bandwidth of bird songs in cities

Cited by 19 publications

References 44 publications

A global synthesis of the impacts of urbanization on bird dawn choruses

A global synthesis of the impacts of urbanization on bird dawn choruses

Chronic exposure to urban noise during the vocal learning period does not lead to increased song frequencies in zebra finches

Aplicación de los conceptos de la genética del paisaje a la conservación de las aves de montaña = Application of landscape genetics concepts to the conservation of mountain birds

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