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Anthropogenic noise exposure in protected natural areas: estimating the scale of ecological consequences

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Abstract

The extensive literature documenting the ecological effects of roads has repeatedly implicated noise as one of the causal factors. Recent studies of wildlife responses to noise have decisively identified changes in animal behaviors and spatial distributions that are caused by noise. Collectively, this research suggests that spatial extent and intensity of potential noise impacts to wildlife can be studied by mapping noise sources and modeling the propagation of noise across landscapes. Here we present models of energy extraction, aircraft overflight and roadway noise as examples of spatially extensive sources and to present tools available for landscape scale investigations. We focus these efforts in US National Parks (Mesa Verde, Grand Teton and Glacier) to highlight that ecological noise pollution is not a threat restricted to developed areas and that many protected natural areas experience significant noise loads. As a heuristic tool for understanding past and future noise pollution we forecast community noise utilizing a spatially-explicit land-use change model that depicts the intensity of human development at sub-county resolution. For road noise, we transform effect distances from two studies into sound levels to begin a discussion of noise thresholds for wildlife. The spatial scale of noise exposure is far larger than any protected area, and no site in the continental US is free form noise. The design of observational and experimental studies of noise effects should be informed by knowledge of regional noise exposure patterns.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Brian Pijanowski for the invitation to contribute to this special issue, two anonymous reviewers for their insight and our colleagues in the Natural Sounds and Night Skies Division of the National Park Service for discussion and continued efforts to protect sensory resources.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, Boise State University, Mail Stop 1515, Boise, ID, 83725-1515, USA

    Jesse R. Barber

  2. Department of Fish, Wildlife and Conservation Biology, Colorado State University, 1474 Campus Delivery, Fort Collins, CO, 80523-1474, USA

    Chris L. Burdett, Sarah E. Reed, Kevin R. Crooks & Dave M. Theobald

  3. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Colorado State University, 1373 Campus Delivery, Fort Collins, CO, 80523-1373, USA

    Katy A. Warner & Charlotte Formichella

  4. Natural Sounds and Night Skies Division, National Park Service, 1201 Oakridge Drive, Suite 100, Fort Collins, CO, 80525, USA

    Kurt M. Fristrup

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  1. Jesse R. Barber
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Correspondence to Jesse R. Barber.

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Barber, J.R., Burdett, C.L., Reed, S.E. et al. Anthropogenic noise exposure in protected natural areas: estimating the scale of ecological consequences. Landscape Ecol 26, 1281–1295 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-011-9646-7

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