Anthropogenic electromagnetic noise disrupts magnetic compass orientation in a migratory bird
Anthropogenic electromagnetic noise disrupts magnetic compass orientation in a migratory bird
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DOI：
10.1038/nature13290
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发表时间：
2014-05-15
期刊：
影响因子：
64.8
通讯作者：
Mouritsen, Henrik
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Engels, Svenja;Schneider, Nils-Lasse;Mouritsen, Henrik
电磁噪声在人类使用电子设备的任何地方都会发出。几十年来，人们一直在激烈争论人造电场和磁场是否会影响生物过程，包括人类健康（1-5）。到目前为止，在低于世界卫生组织（1，2）通过的指导方针的强度下，没有人为电磁噪声的推定影响经受住了在真正的盲法实验条件下独立复制的测试。因此，没有效果被广泛接受为科学证明（1-6）。在这里，我们表明，候鸟无法使用他们的磁罗盘在城市电磁噪声的存在。当欧洲知更鸟Erithacus rubecula暴露在奥尔登堡大学校园内未屏蔽的木屋中的背景电磁噪声中时，它们无法使用磁罗盘定位。它们的磁定向能力再现了非电接地的铝屏蔽小屋，其将频率范围从50 kHz到5 MHz的电磁噪声衰减了大约两个数量级。当接地被移除或当宽带电磁噪声被故意产生在屏蔽和接地的小屋内时，鸟类再次失去了它们的磁定向能力。射频电磁场的破坏性影响并不局限于狭窄的频带，在远离电磁噪声源的地方测试的鸟类不需要屏蔽来用它们的磁罗盘定位。这些完全双盲的测试记录了人为电磁噪声对完整脊椎动物行为的可再现影响。
Electromagnetic noise is emitted everywhere humans use electronic devices. For decades, it has been hotly debated whether man-made electric and magnetic fields affect biological processes, including human health(1-5). So far, no putative effect of anthropogenic electromagnetic noise at intensities below the guidelines adopted by the World Health Organization(1,2) has withstood the test of independent replication under truly blinded experimental conditions. No effect has therefore been widely accepted as scientifically proven(1-6). Here we show that migratory birds are unable to use their magnetic compass in the presence of urban electromagnetic noise. When European robins, Erithacus rubecula, were exposed to the background electromagnetic noise present in unscreened wooden huts at the University of Oldenburg campus, they could not orient using their magnetic compass. Their magnetic orientation capabilities reappeared inelectrically grounded, aluminium-screened huts, which attenuated electromagnetic noise in the frequency range from 50 kHz to 5 MHz by approximately two orders of magnitude. When the grounding was removed or when broadband electromagnetic noise was deliberately generated inside the screened and grounded huts, the birds again lost their magnetic orientation capabilities. The disruptive effect of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields is not confined to a narrow frequency band and birds tested far from sources of electromagnetic noise required no screening to orient with their magnetic compass. These fully double-blinded tests document a reproducible effect of anthropogenic electromagnetic noise on the behaviour of an intact vertebrate.