An experimental investigation into the effects of traffic noise on distributions of birds: avoiding the phantom road

Publication Type:

Journal Article

Authors:

McClure, Christopher J. W.; Ware, Heidi E.; Carlisle, Jay; Kaltenecker, Gregory; Barber, Jesse R.

Source:

Proceedings of the Royal Society B, Royal Society Publishing, Volume 280, Issue 1773, p.20132290 (2013)

Call Number:

A13MCC01IDUS

URL:

http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/280/1773/20132290.abstract, supp material at http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/suppl/2013/11/05/rspb.2013.2290.DC1.html

Keywords:

American Robin, Cassin's Finch, Chipping Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, Evening Grosbeak, Haemorhous cassinii, Hesperiphona vespertina, Junco hyemalis, Lazuli Bunting, Passerina amoena, Pipilo maculatus, Red-breasted Nuthatch, road noise, Sitta canadensis, Spizella passerina, Spotted Towhee, stopover habitat, White-crowned Sparrow, Zonotrichia leucophrys

Abstract:

Many authors have suggested that the negative effects of roads on animals are largely due to traffic noise. Although suggestive, most past studies of the effects of road noise on wildlife were conducted in the presence of the other confounding effects of roads, such as visual disturbance, collisions, and chemical pollution, among others. This paper presents results of perhaps the first study to experimentally apply traffic noise to a roadless area at a landscape scale, thus avoiding the other confounding aspects of roads present in past studies. The researchers replicated the sound of a roadway at intervals—alternating 4 days of noise on with 4 days off—during the autumn migratory period using a 0.5 km array of speakers within an established stopover site in southern Idaho. They also conducted daily bird surveys along this "Phantom Road’ and in a nearby control site. Over a one-quarter decline in bird abundance and almost complete avoidance by some species between noise-on and noise-off periods were documented along the phantom road and no such effects at control sites—suggesting that traffic noise is a major driver of effects of roads on populations of animals.