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Anthropogenic noise reduces male reproductive investment in an acoustically signaling insect

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A Correction to this article was published on 27 April 2022

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Abstract

Rapidly changing environments impose novel selection pressures on organisms, and sometimes adaptive phenotypic plasticity allows organisms to survive and reproduce in the face of environmental change. However, plastic responses can also be maladaptive. In this study, we investigate whether male reproductive investment responds plastically to varied experience with traffic noise. We exposed male crickets chronically to one of three noise treatments from the 2nd-3rd instar until their natural death: masking traffic noise (including noise that overlaps in frequency with the male crickets’ mating calls), non-masking traffic noise (an identical traffic noise track from which we digitally removed the frequencies that mask the crickets’ mating call), and silence. We dissected and weighed their testes and spermatophore molds. Controlling for body mass, we found that the spermatophore molds of crickets reared in masking and non-masking noise were 29% and 24% lighter, respectively, than those of crickets reared in silence. There were no differences in body mass-adjusted testes mass among treatments. If spermatophore mold mass is positively associated with male reproductive output, this reduction in size could have negative fitness consequences for animals exposed to traffic noise. We encourage future work to investigate impacts of noise on reproductive investment in other study systems that are likely sensitive to anthropogenic noise (e.g., birds, frogs, singing insects).

Significance statement

Anthropogenic noise is a pervasive pollutant and chronic noise can negatively affect fitness. How does anthropogenic noise influence reproductive investment? Phenotypically plastic responses to noise may increase survival and reproduction in noisy environments. Traffic noise masks the sounds crickets make, potentially changing conspecifics’ perception of population density, mate availability, and the risk of sperm competition. We found that male crickets reared in silence developed significantly larger spermatophore molds (a reproductive structure that delivers the sperm containing packet to the female) than those reared in traffic noise. If the spermatophore mold influences male reproductive output, this reduction in size may have negative impacts on reproductive success of animals exposed to masking traffic noise.

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Data availability

The datasets generated and analyzed in this study are available in the Dryad repository (https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.zcrjdfn8d).

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Acknowledgments

E. Larson, S. Nichols, and two anonymous reviewers provided helpful comments on earlier versions of the manuscript.

Funding

Funding was provided by a University of Denver Summer Research Grant to AB, Sigma Xi and Orthopterists’ Society grants to GGS, and funding from the University of Denver to RMT.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biological Sciences, University of Denver, 2190 E Iliff Ave, Denver, CO, 80120, USA

    Anne E. Bowen, Gabrielle A. Gurule-Small & Robin M. Tinghitella

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  1. Anne E. Bowen
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  2. Gabrielle A. Gurule-Small
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  3. Robin M. Tinghitella
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Robin M. Tinghitella.

Additional information

Communicated by K. Shaw

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The original version of this article was revised: In the original version of this article the order of treatments is incorrect along the x-axis of Figure 2 and should read (from left to right): masking, non-masking, silent.

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Bowen, A.E., Gurule-Small, G.A. & Tinghitella, R.M. Anthropogenic noise reduces male reproductive investment in an acoustically signaling insect. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 74, 103 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-020-02868-3

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