Effects of industrial activity and anthropogenic noise on grassland birds

工业活动可以在许多方面影响野生动物。包括道路在内的基础设施会破坏景观，并为捕食者的移动和狩猎提供便利。另外，来自基础设施的噪音可能会对野生动物产生许多负面影响，降低附近栖息地的吸引力，增加死亡率或破坏通信。依赖声音交流的物种，如鸣禽，可能特别容易受到工业噪音的影响。因此，具有地上基础设施、道路和噪音的油井威尔斯可能对鸣禽产生负面影响。在接下来的五年里，我的发现补助金计划将专注于石油威尔斯及其噪音对两种草原鸣禽的影响：在加拿大受到威胁的栗领长刺（Calcarius ornatus），以及分布更广的萨凡纳麻雀（Passerculus quanichensis）。 重要的是，我们要确定工业活动的影响是由于物理结构本身，还是基础设施的噪音，因为减轻人类对野生动物影响的战略取决于这些影响的原因。例如，如果威尔斯对鸟类的影响是由于道路造成的，我们可以通过将威尔斯集中在一起来减少所需的通道数量来减少它们的影响。然而，如果威尔斯的影响是由于噪音，我们可以通过使用隔音屏障或更安静的泵技术来减少其影响。为了区分噪音的影响和威尔斯井本身的存在，我们将比较有和没有产生噪音的石油威尔斯井的地点和我们播放威尔斯井噪音录音的地点。* 威尔斯和威尔斯发出的噪音对鸟类有许多不同的影响。在这里，我们将重点讨论其影响的原因。人们对草原鸣禽离巢后的生存情况知之甚少，我们将比较有和没有威尔斯和井声的地点幼鸟的生存情况。威尔斯对繁殖的一些影响，我们发现在以前的研究中，可能是由营养不良引起的，我们将评估威尔斯和噪音对猎物的可用性，觅食和警惕行为之间的权衡，以及身体状况的影响。噪音从威尔斯可能会使女性难以检测和评估潜在的配偶的质量，我们将测量的影响威尔斯和噪音对配对率和后代。最后，我们将进行实验，以确定是否减少井噪音的音量，增加噪音的可预测性，或取代传统的井泵与更安静的基础设施将减少威尔斯对草原鸣禽的影响。累积起来，我们的研究将帮助我们了解为什么工业活动及其噪音会影响鸣禽，因此我们可以确定如何最好地减少人类活动对环境的影响。

Industrial activities can influence wildlife in many ways. Infrastructure, including roads, can fragment the landscape and facilitate movement and hunting by predators. Alternatively, noise from infrastructure may have numerous negative impacts on wildlife by reducing attractiveness of nearby habitat, increasing mortality, or disrupting communication. Species that are dependent on acoustic communication, such as songbirds, may be particularly vulnerable to industrial noise. Therefore, oil wells, which have above-ground infrastructure, roads, and noise, may have negative impacts on songbirds. Over the next five years, my Discovery Grant program will focus on effects of oil wells and their noise on two species of grassland songbirds: chestnut-collared longspurs (Calcarius ornatus), which are threatened in Canada, and Savannah sparrows (Passerculus sandwichensis), which are more widespread.****** It is important that we determine whether effects of industrial activities are due to the physical structure itself, or noise from the infrastructure, because strategies for mitigating human impacts on wildlife differ depending on what the reasons are for those impacts. For example, if effects of wells on birds are due to roads, we might reduce their impact by clustering wells together to reduce the number of access roads needed. However, if effects of wells are due to noise, we could reduce their impact by using sound-dampening barrier walls or quieter pump technology. To distinguish effects of noise from the presence of the wells themselves, we will compare sites with and without noise-producing oil wells to sites where we play recordings of noises from wells.******* Wells, and the noise from wells, can have many different impacts on birds. Here, we will focus on the reasons for their effects. Very little is understood about survival of grassland songbirds after they leave the nest; we will compare survival of fledglings in sites with and without wells and well noise. Some effects of wells on reproduction, which we discovered in previous research, might be caused by poor nutrition; we will assess effects of wells and noise on prey availability, on the trade-off between foraging and vigilance behaviour, and on body condition. Noise from wells may make it difficult for females to detect and assess the quality of potential mates; we will measure effects of wells and noise on pairing rates and on offspring. Finally, we will conduct experiments to determine whether reducing the volume of well noise, increasing predictability of noise, or replacing traditional well pumps with quieter infrastructure would reduce impacts of wells on grassland songbirds. Cumulatively, our research will help us understand why industrial activity and its noise affects songbirds, so we can determine how to best reduce environmental impacts of human activities.***