scholarly journals Cetacean Acoustic Welfare in Wild and Managed-Care Settings: Gaps and Opportunities

Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 3312
Author(s):  
Paige E. Stevens ◽  
Heather M. Hill ◽  
Jason N. Bruck
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Managed Care ◽  
Environmental Parameters ◽  
Noise Pollution ◽  
Anthropogenic Noise ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
Acoustic Environment ◽  
Conservation Implications ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Deep Integration

Cetaceans are potentially at risk of poor welfare due to the animals’ natural reliance on sound and the persistent nature of anthropogenic noise, especially in the wild. Industrial, commercial, and recreational human activity has expanded across the seas, resulting in a propagation of sound with varying frequency characteristics. In many countries, current regulations are based on the potential to induce hearing loss; however, a more nuanced approach is needed when shaping regulations, due to other non-hearing loss effects including activation of the stress response, acoustic masking, frequency shifts, alterations in behavior, and decreased foraging. Cetaceans in managed-care settings share the same acoustic characteristics as their wild counterparts, but face different environmental parameters. There have been steps to integrate work on welfare in the wild and in managed-care contexts, and the domain of acoustics offers the opportunity to inform and connect information from both managed-care settings and the wild. Studies of subjects in managed-care give controls not available to wild studies, yet because of the conservation implications, wild studies on welfare impacts of the acoustic environment on cetaceans have largely been the focus, rather than those in captive settings. A deep integration of wild and managed-care-based acoustic welfare research can complement discovery in both domains, as captive studies can provide greater experimental control, while the more comprehensive domain of wild noise studies can help determine the gaps in managed-care based acoustic welfare science. We advocate for a new paradigm in anthropogenic noise research, recognizing the value that both wild and managed-care research plays in illustrating how noise pollution affects welfare including physiology, behavior, and cognition.

scholarly journals Noise affects resource assessment in an invertebrate

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 20170098 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin P. Walsh ◽  
Gareth Arnott ◽  
Hansjoerg P. Kunc
Keyword(s):  
Selection Process ◽  
Noise Pollution ◽  
Resource Assessment ◽  
Hermit Crabs ◽  
Anthropogenic Noise ◽  
Acoustic Environment ◽  
Detailed Assessment ◽  
Global Pollutant ◽  
Critical Resource ◽  
Pagurus Bernhardus

Anthropogenic noise is a global pollutant, affecting animals across taxa. However, how noise pollution affects resource acquisition is unknown. Hermit crabs ( Pagurus bernhardus ) engage in detailed assessment and decision-making when selecting a critical resource, their shell; this is crucial as individuals in poor shells suffer lower reproductive success and higher mortality. We experimentally exposed hermit crabs to anthropogenic noise during shell selection. When exposed to noise, crabs approached the shell faster, spent less time investigating it, and entered it faster. Our results demonstrate that changes in the acoustic environment affect the behaviour of hermit crabs by modifying the selection process of a vital resource. This is all the more remarkable given that the known cues used in shell selection involve chemical, visual and tactile sensory channels. Thus, our study provides rare evidence for a cross-modal impact of noise pollution.

scholarly journals Assessments and Control of Anthropogenic Noise Pollution in Students’ Residential Areas in Ogbomoso

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
A. O. Ajayeoba
Keyword(s):  
Medical History ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Circuit Breaker ◽  
Noise Pollution ◽  
Sound Level ◽  
Anthropogenic Sources ◽  
Anthropogenic Noise ◽  
Residential Areas ◽  
Sound System ◽  
And Control

Increased rate of noise-associated risk factors such as speech interference and reduction in productivity, necessitated that control and regulation measures be put in place, to contain anthropogenic noise pollution in the students’ hostels. Therefore, this study assessed the various anthropogenic sources of noise pollution in students’ hostels and developed a Sound Level Monitor and Control (SLMC) device. 1250 undergraduate students across 5 students’ residential zones were sampled for demographics and investigations were conducted into respondents’ perceived medical history, identification of noise sources, and evaluation of hearing loss. Effects of noise levels were evaluated using 100 respondents’ rooms per zone following standard procedures, considering Sound-System-Only (SSO), Generators-Only (GO), and combination of Sound-System-and-Generator (SSG), loud-conversations, etc., as sources of noise. However, a noise control device incorporated with a circuit breaker was developed. The respondents were 51.2% male and 48.8% female, with 58% in the age range 18 – 27 years. The medical history showed that 1.2 and 6.4% had a hearing problem in short and long times, respectively, while 43.6% affirmed that SSO was a major noise pollution causal factor. SSO, GO, loud conversations, traffic, and grinding machines were identified as the prominent sources of anthropogenic induced noise. The minimum average SL result gave a value of 62.8400dB for both ventilated and unventilated rooms, which is 14% above 55dB threshold value recommended by the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency. The developed SLMC device gave notification at the SL above 55dB for 15 seconds before disconnecting the sound system if not regulated.

scholarly journals Spatio-temporal differentiation of sound environment in urban functional areas of China

2020 ◽  
Vol 143 ◽  
pp. 01024
Author(s):  
WANG Fuhong ◽  
LI Jie
Keyword(s):  
Significant Influence ◽  
Environmental Governance ◽  
Social Economy ◽  
Influence Factors ◽  
Noise Pollution ◽  
Acoustic Environment ◽  
Sound Environment ◽  
Urban Level ◽  
Spatio Temporal ◽  
Functional Areas

Urban acoustic environment, especially noise pollution, is a product of rapid urban development and urban scale expansion. It is one of the urgent environment problems in current urban planning and governance. This study analyzes the spatiotemporal changes of acoustic environment in the functional areas of cities above prefectural level based on the geographical perspective in China. The results shows that the higher urban level is, the more active acoustic environment in the functional areas will be; otherwise, the quieter it will be. The spatial variation of the acoustic environment in the functional areas in the east is generally higher than in the west, and the coastal areas is higher than interior during day and night, which is generally consistent with the spatial distribution characteristics of China's social and economic development. The influence factors of urban acoustic environment are multiple, the development of urban social economy has a significant influence on urban acoustic environment, and the factors like environmental protection consciousness of residents, environmental governance level of the city have a significant influence on urban acoustic environment. Therefore, the governance measures of urban acoustic environment should be more diversified.

scholarly journals Opportunistic or Non-Random Wildlife Crime? Attractiveness Rather Than Abundance in the Wild Leads to Selective Parrot Poaching

Diversity ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pedro Romero-Vidal ◽  
Fernando Hiraldo ◽  
Federica Rosseto ◽  
Guillermo Blanco ◽  
Martina Carrete ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Methodological Approach ◽  
Wildlife Trade ◽  
High Demand ◽  
Wildlife Crime ◽  
Conservation Implications ◽  
Species Abundances ◽  
In The Wild ◽  
Large Scale Survey ◽  
First Time

Illegal wildlife trade, which mostly focuses on high-demand species, constitutes a major threat to biodiversity. However, whether poaching is an opportunistic crime within high-demand taxa such as parrots (i.e., harvesting proportional to species availability in the wild), or is selectively focused on particular, more desirable species, is still under debate. Answering this question has important conservation implications because selective poaching can lead to the extinction of some species through overharvesting. However, the challenges of estimating species abundances in the wild have hampered studies on this subject. We conducted a large-scale survey in Colombia to simultaneously estimate the relative abundance of wild parrots through roadside surveys (recording 10,811 individuals from 25 species across 2221 km surveyed) and as household, illegally trapped pets in 282 sampled villages (1179 individuals from 21 species). We used for the first time a selectivity index to test selection on poaching. Results demonstrated that poaching is not opportunistic, but positively selects species based on their attractiveness, defined as a function of species size, coloration, and ability to talk, which is also reflected in their local prices. Our methodological approach, which shows how selection increases the conservation impacts of poaching for parrots, can be applied to other taxa also impacted by harvesting for trade or other purposes.

Descriptors and Indicators of the Acoustic Environment in Andorra and Escaldes-Engordany

Proceedings ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 6
Author(s):  
Rosa Alsina-Pagès ◽  
Laura Echevarría-Garuz
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Noise Pollution ◽  
The Other ◽  
Physical Parameters ◽  
Noise Sources ◽  
Acoustic Environment ◽  
Audio Recordings ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The City

Noise pollution is one of the growing issues in our cities. Every day the streets are full of vehicles of all kinds and works using noisy machinery; it seems difficult to find a quiet area that away from this acoustic environment. Presently, multiple studies are being carried out in the area of engineering in order to be able to attenuate the causes of this noise pollution, in order to improve citizens’ lives. Nevertheless, are cars the only cause of the noise in the city? Are there other noise sources that may affect the quality of life of the citizens? What defines a city as heavily polluted or not? Maybe it can be assumed that truck noise is annoying and that it contributes to noise pollution, while the sound of birds does not and it is pleasant for people. This paper pretends to analyze the physical parameters that allow us to define if any sound causes annoyance, taking into account its acoustic environment. To do this, a specific case will be analysed; we will study three locations measured in Andorra La Vella and Escaldes-Engordany. The audio recordings will be studied deeply, and compared one to the other using data from two different days and all day schedule. We will finally evaluate the annoyance of each location using parameters such as loudness, sharpness and roughness, and taking into account both day and time, as well as giving details about the several types of sound labelled in each recording.

scholarly journals Fish in habitats with higher motorboat disturbance show reduced sensitivity to motorboat noise

2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (10) ◽  
pp. 20180441 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry R. Harding ◽  
Timothy A. C. Gordon ◽  
Rachel E. Hsuan ◽  
Alex C. E. Mackaness ◽  
Andrew N. Radford ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Oxygen Consumption ◽  
Consumption Rate ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Cichlid Fish ◽  
Noise Pollution ◽  
Anthropogenic Noise ◽  
Disturbance History ◽  
Natural Conditions ◽  
Population Responses ◽  
The Past

Anthropogenic noise can negatively impact many taxa worldwide. It is possible that in noisy, high-disturbance environments, the range and severity of impacts could diminish over time, but the influence of previous disturbance remains untested in natural conditions. This study demonstrates the effects of motorboat noise on the physiology of an endemic cichlid fish in Lake Malawi. Exposure to motorboats (driven 20–100 m from fish) and loudspeaker playback of motorboat noise both elevated the oxygen-consumption rate at a single lower-disturbance site, characterized by low historic and current motorboat activity. Repeating this assay at further lower-disturbance sites revealed a consistent effect of elevated oxygen consumption in response to motorboat disturbance. However, when similar trials were repeated at four higher-disturbance sites, no effect of motorboat exposure was detected. These results demonstrate that disturbance history can affect local population responses to noise. Action regarding noise pollution should consider the past, as well as the present, when planning for the future.

scholarly journals Experimentally increased noise levels change spatial and singing behaviour

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 20120771 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirsty Elizabeth McLaughlin ◽  
Hansjoerg P. Kunc
Keyword(s):  
Noise Source ◽  
Noise Pollution ◽  
Erithacus Rubecula ◽  
Noise Levels ◽  
Acoustic Environment ◽  
Animal Populations ◽  
Suitable Habitats ◽  
Free Ranging ◽  
The Impact ◽  
New Infrastructure

The reasons why animal populations decline in response to anthropogenic noise are still poorly understood. To understand how populations are affected by noise, we must understand how individuals are affected by noise. By modifying the acoustic environment experimentally, we studied the potential relationship between noise levels and both spatial and singing behaviour in the European robin ( Erithacus rubecula ). We found that with increasing noise levels, males were more likely to move away from the noise source and changed their singing behaviour. Our results provide the first experimental evidence in a free ranging species, that not merely the presence of noise causes changes in behaviour and distribution, but that the level of noise pollution plays a crucial role as well. Our results have important implications for estimating the impact of infrastructure which differs in the level of noise produced. Thus, governmental planning bodies should not only consider the physical effect on the landscape when assessing the impact of new infrastructure, but also the noise levels emitted, which may reduce the loss of suitable habitats available for animals.

Noise Footprint: A Proposal Within the Framework of FP7 AQUO Project to Define a Goal Based Approach Towards the Reduction of Underwater Radiated Noise From Shipping

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Baudin ◽  
Thomas Folegot ◽  
Michel Andre ◽  
Christian Audoly ◽  
Enrico Rizzuto ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Work Group ◽  
Noise Pollution ◽  
Anthropogenic Noise ◽  
Current Status ◽  
Marine Biota ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Maritime Traffic ◽  
Project Structure ◽  
Applied Knowledge ◽  
Future Work

The Marine Strategy Framework Directive has officially stated as soon as 2008 the anthropogenic noise due to shipping were to be mitigated. The policy makers, the yards and the ship owners still strongly rely on the expert studies and guidelines to find the appropriate methodology to assess and then mitigate the acoustic pollution impact shipping on the marine biota. To address this issue, the project AQUO “Achieve QUieter Oceans by shipping noise footprint reduction” (www.aquo.eu) started in October 2012 for 3 years. The AQUO project was built in the scope of FP7 European Research Framework. It involves 13 partners from 8 European countries, mixes academic experts, industry representatives from yard, classification society and other acoustic and bio-acoustic specialized bodies. Addressing the anthropogenic noise pollution into the marine biota is an increasing concern which is logically paired with the increasing commercial maritime traffic. The IMO itself has recently issued a first draft guideline, to be followed up during the next MEPC, addressing this matter. In parallel to the different achievements that are effective or in progress by standardization bodies or other delegated or assigned work group, the AQUO project aims to finally issue guidelines to be taken as methodological tools. The multi-disciplinary team of this project aims to comply with expectations from the different stakeholders. First, an overview of the project is given. The objectives and the related project structure are detailed so as to better understand which axes are chosen and studied. Secondly, it is here proposed to share the recent outcomes of AQUO project. The current status of applied knowledge, related legal decisions as well as standards empowerment are essential to identify the remaining needs and consequent expected efforts. Drawing first the background rationales the noise footprint concept is then detailed. The process followed towards the main objective of mitigating the anthropogenic noise from shipping will be partly revealed and completed by the expected future work to be achieved by 2015.

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