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. 2019 Dec 19;9(1):19456.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-55639-0.

Anthropogenic substrate-borne vibrations impact anuran calling

Valentina Caorsi  1   2   3 , Vinicius Guerra  4   5 , Raíssa Furtado  6 , Diego Llusia  7   5 , Lívia Roese Miron  8 , Márcio Borges-Martins  9 , Camila Both  10 , Peter M Narins  11 , Sebastiaan W F Meenderink  12 , Rafael Márquez  13
Affiliations

Anthropogenic substrate-borne vibrations impact anuran calling

Valentina Caorsi et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Anthropogenic disturbance is a major cause of the biodiversity crisis. Nevertheless, the role of anthropogenic substrate vibrations in disrupting animal behavior is poorly understood. Amphibians comprise the terrestrial vertebrates most sensitive to vibrations, and since communication is crucial to their survival and reproduction, they are a suitable model for investigating this timely subject. Playback tests were used to assess the effects of substrate vibrations produced by two sources of anthropogenic activity- road traffic and wind turbines- on the calling activity of a naïve population of terrestrial toads. In their natural habitat, a buried tactile sound transducer was used to emit simulated traffic and wind turbine vibrations, and changes in the toads' acoustic responses were analyzed by measuring parameters important for reproductive success: call rate, call duration and dominant frequency. Our results showed a significant call rate reduction by males of Alytes obstetricans in response to both seismic sources, whereas other parameters remained stable. Since females of several species prefer males with higher call rates, our results suggest that anthropogenically derived substrate-borne vibrations could reduce individual reproductive success. Our study demonstrates a clear negative effect of anthropogenic vibrations on anuran communication, and the urgent need for further investigation in this area.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Boxplot showing variation in call parameters during each treatment. (a) Call rate, (b) call duration and (c) dominant frequency and (d) power threshold. The box plot displays the median with a center line, a variation of 1st and 3rd quartiles represented by the box, a full range of variation (from min to max) represented by “whiskers” above and below and outliers are represented by small circles.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Vibration stimuli used in the study. Amplitude spectrum (above) and waveform (below) of the road traffic and wind turbine seismic vibrations recorded and synthetic stimuli constructed.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Playback scheme showing the 38-min playback presented to each animal. It contained a total of nine fragments of five different stimuli. Triangles indicate the increase of amplitude from 0–100% of the vibration emission within the 2-min treatment.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Equipment setup used for playback experiments and recording of seismic vibrations.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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