St Andrews Research Repository

St Andrews University Home
View Item 
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  •   St Andrews Research Repository
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • University of St Andrews Research
  • View Item
  • Login
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

Higher songs of city birds may not be an individual response to noise

Thumbnail
View/Open
Slater_2017_PRSBB_Citybirds_AAM.pdf (503.6Kb)
Zollingeretal_ElectronicSupplement.pdf (413.5Kb)
Date
16/08/2017
Author
Zollinger, Sue Anne
Slater, Peter J. B.
Nemeth, Erwin
Brumm, Henrich
Keywords
Urbanization
Vocal plasticity
Anthropogenic noise
Bird song
Animal communication
GE Environmental Sciences
QH301 Biology
DAS
Metadata
Show full item record
Abstract
It has been observed in many songbird species that populations in noisy urban areas sing with a higher minimum frequency than do matched populations in quieter, less developed areas. However, why and how this divergence occurs is not yet understood. We experimentally tested whether chronic noise exposure during vocal learning results in songs with higher minimum frequencies in great tits (Parus major), the first species for which a correlation between anthropogenic noise and song frequency was observed. We also tested vocal plasticity of adult great tits in response to changing background noise levels by measuring song frequency and amplitude as we changed noise conditions. We show that noise exposure during ontogeny did not result in songs with higher minimum frequencies. In addition, we found that adult birds did not make any frequency or song usage adjustments when their background noise conditions were changed after song crystallization. These results challenge the common view of vocal adjustments by city birds, as they suggest that either noise itself is not the causal force driving the divergence of song frequency between urban and forest populations, or that noise induces population-wide changes over a time scale of several generations rather than causing changes in individual behaviour.
Citation
Zollinger , S A , Slater , P J B , Nemeth , E & Brumm , H 2017 , ' Higher songs of city birds may not be an individual response to noise ' , Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences , vol. 284 , no. 1860 , 20170602 . https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.0602
Publication
Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Status
Peer reviewed
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.0602
ISSN
0962-8452
Type
Journal article
Rights
© 2017, the Author(s). This work has been made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created, accepted version manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org / https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2017.0602
Description
Funding was provided by the BBSRC (award BB/E003494/1) to P.J.B.S. and H.B. and the DFG (awards BR 2309/7-1, BR 2309/8-1) to H.B. Data are archived at the Dryad Digital Repository (http://dx.doi.org/10.5061/dryad.fc10f)
Collections
  • University of St Andrews Research
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/11530

Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.

Advanced Search

Browse

All of RepositoryCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateNamesTitlesSubjectsClassificationTypeFunderThis CollectionBy Issue DateNamesTitlesSubjectsClassificationTypeFunder

My Account

Login

Open Access

To find out how you can benefit from open access to research, see our library web pages and Open Access blog. For open access help contact: openaccess@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Accessibility

Read our Accessibility statement.

How to submit research papers

The full text of research papers can be submitted to the repository via Pure, the University's research information system. For help see our guide: How to deposit in Pure.

Electronic thesis deposit

Help with deposit.

Repository help

For repository help contact: Digital-Repository@st-andrews.ac.uk.

Give Feedback

Cookie policy

This site may use cookies. Please see Terms and Conditions.

Usage statistics

COUNTER-compliant statistics on downloads from the repository are available from the IRUS-UK Service. Contact us for information.

© University of St Andrews Library

University of St Andrews is a charity registered in Scotland, No SC013532.

  • Facebook
  • Twitter