An experimental test of chronic traffic noise exposure on parental behaviour and reproduction in zebra finches
Chronic traffic noise is increasingly recognised as a potential hazard to wildlife. Several songbird species have been shown to breed poorly in traffic noise exposed habitats. However, identifying whether noise is causal in this requires experimental approaches. We tested whether experimental exposu...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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The Company of Biologists
2022-04-01
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| Series: | Biology Open |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://bio.biologists.org/content/11/4/bio059183 |
| _version_ | 1828839169978269696 |
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| author | Quanxiao Liu Esther Gelok Kiki Fontein Hans Slabbekoorn Katharina Riebel |
| author_facet | Quanxiao Liu Esther Gelok Kiki Fontein Hans Slabbekoorn Katharina Riebel |
| author_sort | Quanxiao Liu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Chronic traffic noise is increasingly recognised as a potential hazard to wildlife. Several songbird species have been shown to breed poorly in traffic noise exposed habitats. However, identifying whether noise is causal in this requires experimental approaches. We tested whether experimental exposure to chronic traffic noise affected parental behaviour and reproductive success in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata). In a counterbalanced repeated-measures design, breeding pairs were exposed to continuous playback of one of two types of highway noise previously shown to be either neutral (control) or aversive. Parental nest attendance positively correlated with feeding effort and was higher for the aversive than the control sound and this effect was more pronounced for parents attending larger broods. However, neither noise condition affected offspring number, growth or body mass. The absence of an effect held when we combined our data with data from two other comparable studies into a meta-analysis. We discuss whether the increased nest attendance could be a compensatory strategy that alleviated detrimental noise effects on the chicks, and whether it could be caused by impaired parent-offspring or within-pair communication. Future work should test these hypotheses and investigate potential long-term costs of increased parental engagement. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-12T19:17:59Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-1fd5842b62954926bbe3fe786c2121ea |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2046-6390 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-12T19:17:59Z |
| publishDate | 2022-04-01 |
| publisher | The Company of Biologists |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Biology Open |
| spelling | doaj.art-1fd5842b62954926bbe3fe786c2121ea2022-12-22T00:14:41ZengThe Company of BiologistsBiology Open2046-63902022-04-0111410.1242/bio.059183059183An experimental test of chronic traffic noise exposure on parental behaviour and reproduction in zebra finchesQuanxiao Liu0Esther Gelok1Kiki Fontein2Hans Slabbekoorn3Katharina Riebel4 Institute of Biology Leiden, Leiden University, Leiden, 2333 BE, The Netherlands Institute of Biology Leiden, Leiden University, Leiden, 2333 BE, The Netherlands Institute of Biology Leiden, Leiden University, Leiden, 2333 BE, The Netherlands Institute of Biology Leiden, Leiden University, Leiden, 2333 BE, The Netherlands Institute of Biology Leiden, Leiden University, Leiden, 2333 BE, The Netherlands Chronic traffic noise is increasingly recognised as a potential hazard to wildlife. Several songbird species have been shown to breed poorly in traffic noise exposed habitats. However, identifying whether noise is causal in this requires experimental approaches. We tested whether experimental exposure to chronic traffic noise affected parental behaviour and reproductive success in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata). In a counterbalanced repeated-measures design, breeding pairs were exposed to continuous playback of one of two types of highway noise previously shown to be either neutral (control) or aversive. Parental nest attendance positively correlated with feeding effort and was higher for the aversive than the control sound and this effect was more pronounced for parents attending larger broods. However, neither noise condition affected offspring number, growth or body mass. The absence of an effect held when we combined our data with data from two other comparable studies into a meta-analysis. We discuss whether the increased nest attendance could be a compensatory strategy that alleviated detrimental noise effects on the chicks, and whether it could be caused by impaired parent-offspring or within-pair communication. Future work should test these hypotheses and investigate potential long-term costs of increased parental engagement.http://bio.biologists.org/content/11/4/bio059183traffic noiseparental carezebra finchreproductionexperimental exposure |
| spellingShingle | Quanxiao Liu Esther Gelok Kiki Fontein Hans Slabbekoorn Katharina Riebel An experimental test of chronic traffic noise exposure on parental behaviour and reproduction in zebra finches Biology Open traffic noise parental care zebra finch reproduction experimental exposure |
| title | An experimental test of chronic traffic noise exposure on parental behaviour and reproduction in zebra finches |
| title_full | An experimental test of chronic traffic noise exposure on parental behaviour and reproduction in zebra finches |
| title_fullStr | An experimental test of chronic traffic noise exposure on parental behaviour and reproduction in zebra finches |
| title_full_unstemmed | An experimental test of chronic traffic noise exposure on parental behaviour and reproduction in zebra finches |
| title_short | An experimental test of chronic traffic noise exposure on parental behaviour and reproduction in zebra finches |
| title_sort | experimental test of chronic traffic noise exposure on parental behaviour and reproduction in zebra finches |
| topic | traffic noise parental care zebra finch reproduction experimental exposure |
| url | http://bio.biologists.org/content/11/4/bio059183 |
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