Integrating approaches from behavior and engineering to explore how male songbirds respond to anthropogenic noise

自然景观正在加速转变为城市地区，导致人们对野生种群在城市中持续生存的能力表示担忧。与城市化相关的一个主要因素是人为噪声的增加，这是来自交通、住宅和工业机械的强烈低频声音。对于鸣禽等通过发声进行交流的动物来说，人为噪音的增加是一个问题：噪音与声音信号重叠，改变了信号在环境中的传播方式，这可能会影响雄性建立繁殖领地和吸引配偶的能力。一些鸣禽对噪音的反应是灵活地改变它们的声音信号，叫得更大声或更高的频率。目前尚不清楚的是，除了信号调节之外，鸣禽是否还有其他方法来最大限度地减少噪音对声音信号的负面影响。通过行为生态学家和噪音工程师之间的独特合作，该研究将探索雄性是否决定在哪里建立繁殖领地，在哪里唱歌，以及如何调整歌曲，所有这些都基于人为噪音的变化。为了回答这些问题，该研究将使用“噪声映射”来可视化噪声随时间和空间的变化，以及行为观察和噪声引入实验来记录鸣禽对噪声的反应。对噪声变化的详细研究将产生关于动物如何对噪声作出反应的新见解，因为它同时考虑了应对噪声中声音信号挑战的多种潜在解决方案。该研究将为高中，本科和研究生学习生态学和工程，通过在自然和城市景观中的声音散步进行公共宣传，以及改善城市公园和森林的设计和价值的信息提供宝贵的跨学科培训。

Natural landscapes are being converted to urban areas at an accelerating pace, leading to concerns regarding the ability of wild populations to persist in cities. A major factor associated with urbanization is increased human-generated or anthropogenic noise, which is intense, low frequency sound originating from traffic and residential and industrial machinery. For animals that communicate with vocalizations, such as songbirds, increasing anthropogenic noise is problematic: noise overlaps vocal signals and changes how signals are transmitted through the environment, which may affect the ability of males to establish breeding territories and attract mates. Some songbirds respond to noise by flexibly changing their vocal signals, calling louder or at higher frequencies. What is not known is whether songbirds have other ways in addition to signal adjustments to minimize the negative effects of noise on vocal signaling. Through a unique collaboration between a behavioral ecologist and a noise engineer, the research will explore whether males make decisions about where to establish breeding territories, where to sing within them, and how to adjust song, all based on variation in anthropogenic noise. To answer these questions, the research will use "noise mapping" to visualize noise over time and space, and behavioral observations and noise introduction experiments to document songbird responses to noise. The detailed study of noise variation will generate new insights regarding how animals respond to noise, as it simultaneously considers multiple potential solutions to the challenge of vocal signaling in noise. The research will provide valuable interdisciplinary training for high school, undergraduate and graduate students studying ecology and engineering, public outreach through sound walks in natural and urban landscapes, and information that will improve design and value of urban parks and forests for wildlife.