title: Airport noise predicts song timing of European birds.
abstract: Anthropogenic noise is of increasing concern to biologists and medical scientists. Its detrimental effects on human health have been well studied, with the high noise levels from air traffic being of particular concern. However, less is known about the effects of airport noise pollution on signal masking in wild animals. Here, we report a relationship between aircraft noise and two major features of the singing behavior of birds. We found that five of ten songbird species began singing significantly earlier in the morning in the vicinity of a major European airport than their conspecifics at a quieter control site. As birds at both sites started singing before the onset of air traffic in the morning, this suggests that the birds in the vicinity of the airport advanced their activity to gain more time for unimpaired singing before the massive plane noise set in. In addition, we found that during the day, chaffinches avoided singing during airplane takeoffs, but only when the noise exceeded a certain threshold, further suggesting that the massive noise caused by the airport can impair acoustic communication in birds. Overall, our study indicates that birds may be adjusting their mating signals and time budgets in response to aircraft noise.
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Ecology Netherlands Institute of Ecology Wageningen 6708 PB The Netherlands; Institute of Biodiversity Animal Health and Comparative Medicine University of Glasgow Glasgow G12 8QQ UK.
authors.forename: Davide M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Dominoni
authors.affiliation: Sensory Ecology Group Max Planck Institute for Ornithology Seewiesen 82319 Germany.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Greif
authors.affiliation: Communication and Social Behaviour Group Max Planck Institute for Ornithology Seewiesen 82319 Germany; Bird Life Austria Vienna 1070 Austria.
authors.forename: Erwin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Nemeth
authors.affiliation: Sensory Ecology Group Max Planck Institute for Ornithology Seewiesen 82319 Germany.
authors.forename: Henrik
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Brumm
keywords: Airport; dawn chorus; ecological novelty; noise; songbirds