Wind farm noise shifts vocalizations of a threatened shrub-steppe passerine
Entity
UAM. Departamento de EcologíaPublisher
ElsevierDate
2022-03-14Citation
10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119144
Environmental Pollution 303 (2022): 119144
ISSN
0269-7491 (print); 1873-6424 (online)DOI
10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119144Funded by
This work was supported by the European Commission (Life-Ricotí project LIFE15-NAT-ES-000802); the BBVA Foundation (BBVA-Dron Ricotí project); and the Community of Madrid (project REMEDINAL-3). DL also acknowledges a postdoctoral grant provided by Community of Madrid (2020-T1/AMB-20636, Programa de Atraccion ´ de Talento investigador, Spain)Project
Gobierno de España. LIFE15-NAT-ES-000802; Comunidad de Madrid. REMEDINAL-3Editor's Version
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119144Subjects
Acoustic signal detection; Noise masking; Turbine noise; Vocalization adjustments; Vocalization structure; Medio AmbienteRights
© 2022 The Authors
Esta obra está bajo una licencia de Creative Commons Reconocimiento-NoComercial-SinObraDerivada 4.0 Internacional.
Abstract
Wind energy has experienced a notable development during the last decades, driving new challenges for animal communities. Although bird collisions with wind turbines and spatial displacement due to disturbance have been widely described in the literature, other potential impacts remain unclear. In this study, we addressed the effect of turbine noise on the vocal behaviour of a threatened shrub-steppe passerine highly dependent on acoustic communication, the Dupont's lark Chersophilus duponti. Based on directional recordings of 49 calling and singing males exposed to a gradient of turbine noise level (from 15 up to 51 dBA), we tested for differences in signal diversity, redundancy, and complexity, as well as temporal and spectral characteristics of their vocalizations (particularly the characteristic whistle). Our results unveiled that Dupont's lark males varied the vocal structure when subject to turbine noise, by increasing the probability of emitting more complex whistles (with increased number of notes) and shifting the dominant note (emphasizing the longest and higher-pitched note). In addition, males increased duration and minimum frequency of specific notes of the whistle, while repertoire size and signal redundancy remain constant. To our knowledge, this is the first study reporting multiple and complex responses on the vocal repertoire of animals exposed to turbine noise and unveiling a shift of the dominant note in response to anthropogenic noise in general. These findings suggest that the Dupont's lark exhibits some level of phenotypic plasticity, which might enable the species to cope with noisy environments, although the vocal adjustments observed might have associated costs or alter the functionality of the signal. Future wind energy projects must include fine-scale noise assessments to quantify the consequences of chronic noise exposure
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Google Scholar:Gómez Catasús, Julia
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Barrero, Adrián
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Llusia Genique, Diego
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Iglesias Merchan, Carlos
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Traba Díaz, Juan
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