Collaborative Research: RUI: Direct and indirect effects of natural sounds on the structure of vertebrate insectivore communities

长期以来，科学家们通过研究我们人类在环境中看到的东西来解释特定物种的动物在哪里被发现。 例如，我们知道植物的种类和密度会影响麻雀的栖息地，然而，许多动物在与周围环境互动并决定在哪里生活时，严重依赖非视觉感官，如听觉。虽然声学环境--动物听到的声音--对许多物种来说可能很重要，但它作为影响动物栖息地的一种力量在很大程度上仍未被探索。本项目将研究自然声音（如风和水产生的声音）在多大程度上影响动物的栖息地，它们如何相互作用，以及最终如何构建整个社区。以鸟类和蝙蝠为研究对象，研究人员将进行一项大规模的实验，他们在森林中放置许多扬声器，以创造“幻影”海洋和河流--没有水本身的水流声。 这将使他们能够弄清楚声音如何改变物种与环境以及彼此之间互动的方式。具体来说，这项研究将测试噪音如何解释动物生活的地方，它们的行为方式，以及它们受到人为噪音影响的程度，例如，沿着主要高速公路。这项研究还将为小型大学的本科生提供研究机会，并将举办一个“生态学和进化中的声学”讲习班，教导年轻科学家如何将声学纳入他们自己的生态学领域研究。研究人员将在流动水的自然声音水平较高的地区测试声学对鸟类和蝙蝠群落的影响（自然河流和海洋冲浪声音）、低水平的自然声音、高水平的人工创建的自然声音（幻影河流和冲浪声音）和频谱移位的人工创建的自然声音。 后两种治疗方法将通过大规模回放在其他地方录制的声音来产生。以不同频率回放自然声音的实验方法将使研究人员能够解析声学掩蔽的影响与声音的更一般的影响（例如，干扰和分心）对鸟类和蝙蝠行为以及群落结构的影响。 研究人员还将评估低频自然声音作为栖息地选择声学信标的潜在作用。实地工作将需要结合行为实验，鸟类，蝙蝠，节肢动物和植被调查，并在空间上明确量化的声学环境。 研究人员将测试关于声音如何直接通过掩蔽用于通信或捕食者/猎物检测的线索来构建社区的假设，直接通过减少听觉监视来提高感知风险，或间接通过改变猎物分布。

Scientists have long explained where particular species of animals are found by examining what we, as humans, see in the environment. For example, we know that the type and density of plants affect where sparrows can be found. However, many animals rely heavily on non-visual senses, such as hearing, when interacting with their surroundings and deciding where to live. Although the acoustic environment -- what animals hear -- may be important to many species, it remains largely unexplored as a force influencing where animals can be found. This project will examine the extent to which natural sounds, such as those generated by wind and water, influence where animals settle, how they interact with one another and, ultimately, how they structure entire communities. Focusing on birds and bats, the investigators will conduct a large-scale experiment in which they place many speakers in the forest to create "phantom" oceans and rivers -- the sounds of moving water without the water itself. This will allow them to figure out how sounds can change the way in which species interact with their environment and with each other. Specifically, this study will test how noise can explain where animals live, how they behave, and the extent to which they are impacted by human-made noise generated, for example, along major highways. This study will also provide research opportunities for undergraduate students at small universities and will result in an "Acoustics in Ecology and Evolution" workshop to teach young scientists how to incorporate acoustics into their own ecological field research.Researchers will test for acoustic impacts on bird and bat communities in areas characterized by high levels of natural sounds from moving water (natural river and ocean surf sounds), low levels of natural sounds, high levels of artificially created natural sounds (phantom river and surf sounds), and spectrally-shifted, artificially created natural sounds. The latter two treatments will be generated via large-scale playbacks of sounds recorded elsewhere. The experimental approach of playing back natural sounds at different frequencies will allow researchers to parse the influence of acoustic masking versus more general effects of sounds (e.g., disturbance and distraction) on bird and bat behavior and on community structure. Researchers will also assess the potential role of low frequency natural sounds as acoustic beacons for habitat selection. Field work will entail a combination of behavioral experiments, bird, bat, arthropod and vegetation surveys, and spatially explicit quantification of the acoustic environment. Researchers will test hypotheses regarding how sounds structure communities directly by masking cues used for communication or predator/prey detection, directly via elevated perceived risk through a reduction in auditory surveillance, or indirectly by altering prey distributions.