The impact of chronic traffic noise on birds: vocal learning, health, and fitness

人为噪声已成为保护生物学家以及那些处理人类健康和安全问题的人越来越关注的话题。环境噪声对人类健康的有害影响是众所周知的，然而，关于噪声污染对城市地区动物健康和健身的影响却知之甚少。迄今为止，大多数调查人为噪声对野生动物影响的研究都集中在对噪声的行为反应上。在整个地球仪，高水平的人为噪音与繁殖成功率下降，物种丰富度和各种分类群中声音行为的变化有关。虽然描述环境噪声对自由生活物种的负面影响的出版物数量持续增长，但调查这些变化背后的因果机制的研究相对较少。拟议的研究项目将通过一系列对鸣禽的实验来填补这一空白，结合有关噪音对发声学习和个体发育、应激生理学和生殖成功的影响的研究。鸣禽是研究动物发声学习的主要动物模型，同时也是研究噪声中听觉和噪声诱导的发声可塑性的最佳研究群体之一。拟议的项目将是建立鸣禽作为模型系统的第一步，用于调查噪音相关压力对学习，交流和健身的负面影响的机制。特别是，拟议的项目旨在（1）研究慢性噪音暴露对幼年鸣禽的应激生理、免疫功能、学习和发育的影响，（2）研究慢性噪音对成年鸣禽生殖成功和健康的影响，以及（3）确定亲本中噪声诱导的应激是否影响应激反应和端粒长度（从而导致细胞过早老化和寿命延长）。

Anthropogenic noise has become a topic of increasing concern to conservation biologists as well as to those dealing with issues of human health and safety. The detrimental effects of environmental noise on human health are well recognized, however, very little is known about the effect of noise pollution on the health and fitness of animals in urban areas. To date, most studies investigating the impact of anthropogenic noise on wild animals have focused on behavioural responses to noise. Across the globe, high levels of anthropogenic noise have been linked with decreased breeding success, species richness, and changes in vocal behaviour in a variety of taxa. While the number of publications describing negative effects of en¬vironmental noise on free-living species continues to grow, there are relatively few studies that investigate the causal mechanisms underlying these changes. The proposed research project will fill this gap with a series of experiments on songbirds, combining studies on the impact of noise on vocal learning and ontogeny, stress physiology, and reproductive success. Songbirds are the primary animal model for the study of vocal learning in animals and at the same one of the best studied groups regarding hearing in noise and noise-induced vocal plasticity. The proposed project will be a first step towards establishing songbirds as a model system for investigating the mechanisms underlying the negative impact of noise-related stress on learning, communication, and fitness. In particular, the proposed project aims to (1) examine the impact of chronic noise exposure on the stress physiology, immune function, learning and development of juvenile songbirds, (2) to investigate the effect of chronic noise on reproductive success and health in adult songbirds, and (3) to determine if noise-induced stress in parents affects the stress response and telomere length (and thus premature cell ageing and longevity) in their offspring.