Behavioural plasticity and environmental change: species-specific differences and their consequences

Many human activities lead to an increase in noise levels. Animals relying on acoustic communication have to adjust to man-made noise and only species with sufficient behavioural flexibility might be able to do so. Across taxa it has been shown that many species are affected by noise. For example, bird densities decrease with increasing traffic noise. However, the causal mechanism underlying bird population declines in response to noise is poorly understood. Most bird species use acoustic signals to defend a territory and to attract a mate. Species whose song is masked by noise will have difficulty in obtaining vital resources for survival and will have lower reproductive success. This will lead to a population decline. Traffic noise, as well as most other man-made noise, is generally biased towards lower frequencies. Consequently, those bird species relying on low frequencies might suffer from deteriorating signal efficiency through masking noise. In this project, we will investigate bird population development along motorways and ask whether abundances of different species can be explained by song characteristics and the ability to adjust song to noise. The approach includes the collection of observational and experimental data on song characteristics and acoustic plasticity of different bird species.

Funding Notes
DEL funded (Department for Employment and Learning Studentships)

For further information on eligibility for the above funding, please visit the following website:

http://www.delni.gov.uk


For further information, please visit the School of Biological Sciences website:

http://www.qub.ac.uk/bb

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