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Temporal changes in songbird vocalizations associated with helicopter noise in Hawai'i's protected natural areas

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Abstract

Context

Anthropogenic noise is relatively new to natural soundscapes and may have adverse effects on acoustically active species. In birds, adverse effects include changes in vocalization patterns. Helicopters and songbirds are ubiquitous in protected natural areas but the effect of helicopter noise on songbirds has never been assessed.

Objectives

Our objective was to determine if helicopter noise affects temporal characteristics of songbird vocalizations within protected natural areas.

Methods

We collected soundscape recordings in three protected areas with varying levels of helicopter tour activity, including one with the second highest air tour activity in the United States. We examined songbird response to helicopter noise at the species level by measuring changes in vocalization time, and at the community level by employing the Bioacoustic Index, an acoustic measure of biological sound.

Results

We found a strong association between increasing helicopter noise and songbird vocalizations, indicating that some bird species use temporal shifts in vocalizations to mitigate masking effects from helicopter noise. The strength and direction of the response was species-specific, suggesting differences in resilience to helicopter noise between species. Furthermore, our results suggest that bird response to helicopter noise is strongest in areas with very loud and frequent helicopter traffic.

Conclusions

Our study is the first to examine and demonstrate impacts of helicopter noise on songbird vocalizations. Our results may serve as the foundation of an air tour management plan that considers reducing the number of helicopter overflights over protected natural areas and enforcing higher flight altitudes to decrease noise power levels.

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Data availability

The measurement data that support the findings of this study are available in figshare with the identifier 10.6084/m9.figshare.11608521.

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Acknowledgements

Special thanks to Kurt Fristrup at the National Park Service Natural Sounds and Night Skies Division for initiating the project. A. Pipkin provided access to HAVO recording data from Larson Davis 831 Sound Level Meter ANSI Type 1 Acoustic Monitoring system. We are grateful to B. Pijanowski, M. Knope, and three anonymous reviewers for critical reading of the manuscript; to D. Foster and S. Jorgensen for their advice on site selection; and to all those who helped in the lab and field, especially S. Gajate.

Funding

This work was supported by the United States National Park Service and the University of Hawai'i at Hilo (Task Agreement number P17AC00716). KLP was supported by a National Science Foundation (NSF) Centers for Research Excellence in Science and Technology (CREST) grant (0833211). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of NSF. KVG, KLP, and PJH developed the hypotheses and designed the research. KVG performed field work, performed song analyses of recordings, and wrote the first draft. KVG and KLP performed statistical analyses. All authors provided critical reading of previous versions of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Karen V. Gallardo Cruz.

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Gallardo Cruz, K.V., Paxton, K.L. & Hart, P.J. Temporal changes in songbird vocalizations associated with helicopter noise in Hawai'i's protected natural areas. Landscape Ecol 36, 829–843 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-020-01179-2

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