Noise pollution threatens biodiversity
By Matt Walker
Editor, Earth News Noise pollution is becoming a major threat to the welfare of wildlife, according to a scientific review. Sounds produced by vehicles, oil and gas fields and urban sprawl interfere with the way animals communicate, mate and prey on one another. The sounds are becoming so ubiquitous that they may threaten biodiversity, say the review’s authors. Even the animals living in protected National Parks in the US are being exposed to chronic levels of noise. Writing in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution, three scientists based in Fort Collins, Colorado, US detail the extent to which noise pollution is now harming wild animals. Dr Jesse Barber and Dr Kevin Crooks of Colorado State University and Dr Kurt Fristrup of the US National Park Service reviewed all recent scientific studies examining the issue. They found that man-made noise is already causing a catalogue of problems. “Many animal species evolved hearing sensitive enough to take advantage of the quietest conditions; their hearing is increasingly compromised by noise,” Dr Barber told the BBC. … “Noise pollution is so ubiquitous that it may be a factor in some large-scale declines in biodiversity,” says Dr Barber. …
