Multisensory pollution: Artificial light at night and anthropogenic noise have interactive effects on activity patterns of great tits (Parus major)

Nov 26, 2019Environmental pollution (Barking, Essex : 1987)

How Artificial Light and Human Noise Together Affect Activity Patterns of Great Tits

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Abstract

Artificial light at night and noise together can significantly alter the activity patterns of great tits.

Both artificial light at night and noise independently influenced activity patterns in great tits.
Light exposure increased overall activity, especially during nighttime, while noise exposure decreased activity, particularly during the day.
When combined, light and noise had a synergistic effect on total and nighttime activity, but an antagonistic effect on daytime activity.
Urban birds showed a significant interaction between light and noise on various activity timings, unlike forest birds.
These findings indicate that multisensory pollution from light and noise may pose a considerable threat to wildlife.

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Urbanisation is increasing globally at a rapid pace. Consequently, wild species face novel environmental stressors associated with urban sprawl, such as artificial light at night and noise. These stressors have pervasive effects on the behaviour and physiology of many species. Most studies have singled out the impact of just one of these stressors, while in the real world they are likely to co-occur both temporally and spatially, and we thus lack a clear understanding of the combined effect of anthropogenic stressors on wild species. Here, we experimentally exposed captive male great tits (Parus major) to artificial light at night and 24 h noise in a fully factorial experiment. We then measured the effect of both these stressors on their own and their combination on the amount and timing of activity patterns. We found that both light and noise affected activity patterns when presented alone, but in opposite ways: light increased activity, particularly at night, while noise reduced it, particularly during the day. When the two stressors were combined, we found a synergistic effect on the total activity and the nighttime activity, but an antagonistic effect on daytime activity. The significant interaction between noise and light treatment also differed among forest and city birds. Indeed, we detected a significant interactive effect on light and noise on daytime, nighttime, dusktime and offset of activity of urban birds, but not of forest birds. These results suggest that both artificial light at night and anthropogenic noise can drive changes in activity patterns, but that the specific impacts depend on the habitat of origin. Furthermore, our results demonstrate that co-occurring exposure to noise and light can lead to a stronger impact at night than predicted from the additive effects and thus that multisensory pollution may be a considerable threat for wildlife.

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Multisensory pollution: Artificial light at night and anthropogenic noise have interactive effects on activity patterns of great tits (Parus major)

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