Abstract
Soundscapes are the array of natural and anthropogenic sounds occurring in an area, and can consist of both natural and human derived components. In this study, we compared soundscapes in wetlands disturbed by road-traffic noise to wetlands distant from major roads. In each wetland, above-water and below-water soundscapes were recorded in Spring, Summer, and Fall. Wetlands near roads had higher sound intensity, more anthropogenic noise occurrences, and lower acoustic diversity above and below the water. In contrast, wetlands distant from roads had more natural sounds above and below the water, including a higher number of birdcalls. When soundscapes were subdivided by frequency, most anthropogenic sounds occurred in low frequencies (0–5 kHz), but natural sounds were found in all frequencies. Soundscapes changed during the year, with more natural sounds occurring in Spring and the highest acoustic diversity recorded in Spring and Fall. These findings indicate that nearby roads change wetland soundscapes by increasing noise pollution, which masks natural sounds such as bird calls and reduces biodiversity. The altered soundscapes of freshwater wetlands, near roads potentially could alter biotic communities by affecting animal behavior such as intraspecies communication, interaction of predator and their prey, and resource acquisition.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data Availability
All data and material maintained by primary author on personal drives and computers.
References
Aiken RB (1982) Shallow-water propagation of frequencies in aquatic insect sounds. Canadian Journal of Zoology 60:3459–3461
Barber JR, Crooks KR, Fristrup KM (2009) The costs of chronic noise exposure for terrestrial organisms. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 25:180–189
Blumstein D, Mennill DJ, Clemins P, Girod L, Yao K, Patricelli G, Deppe J, Alan K, Clark C, Cortopassi K, Hanser S, McCowan B, Ali A, Kirschel A (2011) Acoustic monitoring in terrestrial environments using microphone arrays: applications, technological considerations and prospectus. Journal of Applied Ecology 48:758–767
Bridges AS, Dorcas M, E. (2000) Temporal variation in anuran calling behavior: implications for surveys and monitoring programs. Copeia 2:587–592
Carson R (2002) Silent spring: anniversary edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, New York, New york
Costanza RR, de Groot B, Sutton P, van der Ploeg S, Anderson SJ, Kubiszewski I, Farber S, Turner RK (2014) Changes in the global value of ecosystem services. Global Environmental Change 26:152–158
Costens SE, Falls JB (1984) A comparison of sound propagation and song frequency in temperate marsh and grassland habitats. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 15:161–170
Di Lorio L, Clark CW (2010) Exposure to seismic survey alters blue whale acoustic communication. Biology Letters 6:51–54
EPA (2017) Website: Summary of the Noise Control Act. 42 U.S.C. §4901 et seq. (1972). Date updated: December 8 2017. www.epa.gov/laws-regulations/summary-noise-control-act. Accessed 19 May 2019
Francis CD, Ortega CP, Cruz A (2009) Noise pollution changes avian communities and species interactions. Current Biology 19:1415–1419
Forrest TG (1994) From sender to receiver: propagation and environnmental effects on acoustic signals. American Zool. 34:644–654
Gammell MP, O’Brien JM (2018) Acoustic communication in aquatic animals: all quiet on the freshwater front? Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 23:363–365
Hong JY, Jeon JY (2013) Designing sound and visual components for enhancement of urban soundscapes. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 134:2026–2036
Hu Y, Cardoso GC (2010) Which birds adjust the frequency of vocalizations in urban noise? Animal Behaviour 79:863–867
Joo W, Gage SH, Kasten EP (2011) Analysis and interpretation of variability in soundscapes along an urban–rural gradient. Landscape and Urban Planning 103:259–276
Kasten EP, Gage SH, Fox J, Joo W (2012) The remote environmental assessment laboratory’s acoustic library: an archive for studying soundscape ecology. Ecological Informatics 12:50–77
Kern MJ, Radford AN (2016) Anthropogenic noise disrupts use of vocal information about predation risk. Environmental Pollution 218:988–995
Kuehne LM, Padgham BL, Olden JD (2013) The soundscapes of lakes across an urbanization gradient. PLoS One 8(2):e55661. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0055661
Kunc HP, McLaughlin KE, Schmidt R (2016) Aquatic noise pollution: implications for individuals, populations, and ecosystems. Proceedings of the Royal Society 283:20160839. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2016.0839
Laiolo P (2010) The emerging significance of bioacoustics in animal species conservation. Biological Conservation 143:1635–1645
Lohr B, Wright TF, Dooling RJ (2003) Detection and discrimination of natural calls in masking noise by birds: estimating the active space of a signal. Animal Behaviour 65:763–777
Mason R, Roe P, Towsey MW, Zhang J, Gibson J, Gage S (2008) Towards an acoustic environmental observatory. Proceedings of the IEEE Fourth International Conference on eScience, 7–12 December 2008, University Place Conference Center & Hotel, Indianapolis, Indiana
Merchan CI, Diaz-Balteiro L (2013) Noise pollution mapping approach and accuracy on landscape scales. Science of the Total Environment 449:115–125
Mitsch WJ, Gosselink JG (2015) Wetlands, 5th ed, J. Wiley and Sons, Inc. Hoboken
Moretto L, Francis CM (2017) What factors limit bat abundance and diversity in temperate, north American urban environments? Journal of Urban Ecology:1–9
Orci KM, Petroczki K, Barta Z (2016) Instantaneous song modification in response to fluctuating traffic noise in the tree cricket Oecanthus pellucens. Animal Behaviour 112:187–194
Parks SE, Clark CW, Tyack PL (2007) Short- and long-term changes in right whale calling behavior: the potential effects of noise on acoustic communication. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 122:3725–3731
Parris KM, Schneider A (2009) Impacts of traffic noise and traffic volume on birds of roadside habitats. Ecol Soc 14(1):29
Peris SJ, Pescador M (2004) Effects of traffic noise on passerine populations in Mediterranean wooded pastures. Applied Acoustics 65:357–366
Perillo A, Mazzoni LG, Passos LF, Goulart VVLR, Duca C, Young JR (2017) Anthropogenic noise reduces bird species richness and diversity in urban parks. International Journal of Avian Science 159:638–646
Pijanowski BC, Farina A, Gage SH, Dumyahn SL, Krause BL (2011) What is soundscape ecology? An introduction and overview of an emerging new science. Landsc Ecol 26:1213–1232
Proppe DS, Sturdy CB, St. Clair CC (2013) Anthropogenic noise decreases urban songbird diversity and may contribute to homogenization. Global Change Biology 19:1075–1084
Radford AN, Kerridge E, Simpson SD (2014) Acoustic communication in a noisy world: can fish compete with anthropogenic noise? Behavioral Ecology 25(5):1022–1030
Reid AJ, Carlson AK, Creed IF, Eliason EJ, Gell PA, Johnson PTJ, Kidd KA, MacCormack TJ, Olden JD, Ormerod SJ, Smol JP, Taylor WW, Tockner K, Vermaire JC, Dudgeon D, Cooke SJ (2019) Emerging threats and persistent conservation challenges for freshwater biodiversity. Biological Reviews 94:849–873
Reijnen R, Foppen R, Ter Braak C, Thissen J (1995) The effects of car traffic on breeding bird populations in woodland. III. Reduction of density in relation to the proximity of main roads. Journal of Applied Ecology 32:187–202
Riede K (1998) Acoustic monitoring of Orthoptera and its potential for conservation. J Insect Conserv 2:217–223
Ritters KH, Wickham JD (2003) How far to the nearest road? Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 1:125–129
Sebastian-Gonzalez E, Pang-Ching J, Barbosa JM, Hart P (2015) Bioacoustics for species management: two case studies with a Hawaiin forest bird. Ecology and Evolution 5(20):4696–4705
Shannon G, McKenna MF, Angeloni LM, Crooks KR, Fristrup KM, Brown E, Warner KA, Nelson MD, White C, Briggs J, McFarland S, Wittemyer G (2016) Synthesis of two decades of research documenting the effects of noise on wildlife. Biological Reviews 91:982–1005
Simpson SD, Jeffs S, Montgomery JC, McCauley RD, Meekan MG (2007) Nocturnal relocation of adult and juvenile coral reef fishes in response to reef noise. Coral Reefs 27:97–104
Southworth M (1969) The sonic environment of cities. Environment and Behavior 1:49–70
Sueur J, Farina A (2015) Ecoacoustics: the ecological investigation and interpretation of environmental sound. Biosemiotics 8:493–502
U. S. Department of Transportation (2019) Traffic volume trends, March 2019. US. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration. Retrieved from:www.fhwa.dot.gov/policyinformation/travel_monitoring/19martvt/19martvt.pdf). Accessed 30 May 2019
Verheijen E, Jabben J (2010) Effect of electric cars on traffic noise and safety. National Institute for public health and the environment. Bilthoven, the Netherlands
Villalobos JG, Dunn AM, Hassall C (2017) Environmental noise reduces predation rate in an aquatic invertebrate. Journal of Insect Conservation 21:839–847
Villanueva-Rivera LJ, Pijanowski BC, Doucette J, Pekin B (2011) A primer of acoustic analysis for landscape ecologists. Landsc Ecol 26(9):1233–1246
Wilson CJ, Wilson PS, Greene CA, Dunton KH (2013) Seagrass meadows provide an acoustic refuge for estuarine fish. Marine Ecology Progress Series 472:117–127
Wysocki LE, Amoser S, Ladich F (2007) Diversity in ambient noise in European freshwater habitats: noise levels, spectral profiles, and impact on fishes. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 121(5):2559–2566
Code Availability
Not applicable.
Funding
Funding for this study was provided by National Science Foundation Integrated Graduate Education and Research Training grant DGE 0904560 and a Kent State University Art and Margaret Aquatic Ecology Research Facility Student Research Grant.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
A.Hopson. Completed primary research, data analysis and manuscript production.
F. de Szalay. Assisted with research project development and editing manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflicts of Interest/Competing Interests
Not applicable.
Ethics Approval
Not applicable.
Consent to Participate
Not applicable.
Consent for Publication
Not applicable.
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hopson, A., de Szalay, F. Alteration of above and below-Water Soundscapes by Roads. Wetlands 41, 2 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-021-01407-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-021-01407-8