Abstract
Anurans are highly vocal species that rely on acoustic communication for social behaviors. The advertisement (mating) calls of many anurans contain considerable energy within the predominant spectral range of traffic and other anthropogenic-noise sources. Whether and how these noise sources affect reproductive success and species viability is unclear. Data that address how anthropogenic sources affect the spatial distribution of breeding ponds, production and propagation of males’ vocal signals, and detection and discrimination of these signals by females are inconsistent. Anurans may respond to anthropogenic noise using many of the same strategies that they use to deal with biotic and abiotic noise. But there are considerable differences between species in their responses to noise, related to habitat and other variables. Interpretation of data is hampered by the small numbers of species that have been studied; moreover, experiments to date focus only on the perception of advertisement calls and do not address how other biologically important vocalizations, such as aggressive and courtship calls, might be affected by anthropogenic noise. Some species of reptiles are also vocal, but data on the effects of anthropogenic noise on reptile social behaviors are severely lacking. Extensive research is needed to determine the impact of acoustic habitat degradation on these classes of animals.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Amézquita, A., Flechas, S. V., Lima, A. P., Gasser, H., & Hödl, W. (2011). Acoustic interference and recognition space within a complex assemblage of dendrobatid frogs. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 108, 17058-17063.
AmphibiaWeb (2017). Available at http://www.amphibiaweb.org/.
Arch, V. S., Grafe, T. U., & Narins, P. M. (2008). Ultrasonic signaling by a Bornean frog. Biology Letters, 4, 19–22.
Barrass, A. N. (1985). The effects of highway traffic noise on the phonotactic and associated reproductive behavior of selected anurans. Unpublished PhD Dissertation, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN.
Bee, M. A., & Swanson, E. M. (2007). Auditory masking of anuran advertisement calls by road traffic noise. Animal Behaviour, 74, 1765–1776.
Bee, M. A., Perrill, S. A., & Owen, P. C. (2000). Male green frogs lower the pitch of acoustic signals in defense of territories: A possible dishonest signal of size? Behavioral Ecology, 11, 169–177.
Bibikov, N. G. (2002). Addition of noise enhances neural synchrony to amplitude-modulated sounds in the frog’s midbrain. Hearing Research, 173, 21–28.
Boatright-Horowitz, S. S., Cheney, C. A., & Simmons, A. M. (1999). Atmospheric and underwater propagation of bullfrog vocalizations. Bioacoustics, 9, 257–280.
Bouchard, J., Ford, A. T., Eigenbrod, F., & Fahrig, L. (2009). Behavioral responses of northern leopard frogs (Rana pipiens) to roads and traffic: Implications for population persistence. Ecology and Society, 14, 23. Available at http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol14/iss2/art23/.
Brittan-Powell, E. F., Christensen-Dalsgaard, J., Tang, Y., Carr, C., & Dooling, R. J. (2010). The auditory brainstem response in two lizard species. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 128, 787–794.
Brumm, H., & Zollinger, S. A. (2011). The evolution of the Lombard effect: 100 years of psychoacoustic research. Behaviour, 148, 1173–1198.
Caldwell, M. S., & Bee, M. A. (2014). Spatial hearing in Cope’s gray treefrog: Open and closed loop experiments on sound localization in the presence and absence of noise. Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology, 200, 265–284.
Caldwell, M. S, Johnston, G. R., McDaniel, J. G., & Warkentin, K. M. (2010). Vibrational signaling in the agonistic interactions of red-eyed treefrogs. Current Biology, 20, 1012–1017.
Capranica, R. R., & Moffat, A. J. M. (1983). Neurobehavioral correlates of sound communication in anurans. In J. P. Ewert, R. R. Capranica, & D. Ingle (Eds.), Advances in Vertebrate Neuroethology (pp. 701–730). New York: Plenum Press.
Crawford, A. C., & Fettiplace, R. (1980). The frequency selectivity of auditory nerve fibers and hair cells in the cochlea of the turtle. The Journal of Physiology, 306, 79–125.
Cunnington, G. M., & Fahrig, L. (2010). Plasticity in the vocalizations of anurans in response to traffic noise. Acta Oecologica, 36, 463–470.
Cunnington, G. M., & Fahrig, L. (2013). Mate attraction by male anurans in the presence of traffic noise. Animal Conservation, 16, 275–285.
Dooling, R. J., Lohr, B., & Dent, M. L. (2000). Hearing in birds and reptiles. In R. J. Dooling, A. N. Popper, & R. R. Fay (Eds.), Comparative Hearing: Birds and Reptiles (pp. 308–359). New York, Springer-Verlag.
Ehret, G., & Gerhardt, H. C. (1980). Auditory masking and effects of noise on responses of the green treefrog (Hyla cinerea) to synthetic mating calls. Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology, 141, 13–18.
Eigenbrod, F., Hecnar, S. J., & Fahrig, L. (2009). Quantifying the road-effect zone: threshold effects of a motorway on anuran populations in Ontario, Canada. Ecology and Society, 14, 24. Available at http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol14/iss1/art24/.
Ey, E., & Fischer, J. (2009). The “acoustic adaptation hypothesis”—A review of the evidence from birds, anurans and mammals. Bioacoustics, 19, 21–48.
Fay, R. R., & Simmons, A. M. (1999). The sense of hearing in fishes and amphibians. In R. R. Fay & A. N. Popper (Eds.), Comparative Hearing: Fish and Amphibians (pp. 269–318). New York: Springer-Verlag.
Feng, A. S., Narins, P. M., Xu, C.-H., Lin, W.-Y., Yu, Z.-L., Qiu, Q., Xu, Z.-M., & Shen, J.-X. (2006). Ultrasonic communication in frogs. Nature, 440, 333–336.
Ferrara, C. R., Vogt, R. C., Sousa-Lima, R. S., Tardio, B. M. R., & Bernardes, V. C. C. (2014). Sound communication and social behavior in an Amazonian river turtle (Podocnemis expansa). Herpetologica, 70, 149–156.
Freedman, E. G., Ferragamo, M., & Simmons, A. M. (1988). Masking patterns in the bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana). II: Physiological effects. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 84, 2081–2091.
Gerhardt, H. C. (1975). Sound pressure levels and radiation patterns of the vocalizations of some North American frogs and toads. Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology, 102, 1–12.
Gerhardt, H. C., & Huber, F. (2002). Acoustic Communication in Insects and Frogs: Common Problems and Diverse Solutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Goense, J. B. M., & Feng, A. S. (2012). Effects of noise bandwidth and amplitude modulation on masking in frog auditory midbrain neurons. PLoS ONE, 7(2), e31589. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0031589.
Goutte, S., Dubois, A., & Legendre, F. (2013). The importance of ambient sound level to characterize anuran habitat. PLoS ONE, 8, e78020. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0078020.
Gridi-Papp, M., & Narins, P. M. (2010). Seismic detection and communication in amphibians. In C. E. O’Connell-Rodwell (Ed.), The Use of Vibrations in Communication: Properties, Mechanisms and Function Across Taxa (pp. 69–83). Kerala, India: Transworld Research Network.
Halfwerk, W., Jones, P. L., Taylor, R. C., Ryan, M. J., & Page, R. A. (2014). Risky ripples allow bats and frogs to eavesdrop on a multisensory sexual display. Science, 343, 413–416.
Halfwerk, W., Lea, A.M., Guerra, M. A., Page, R. A., & Ryan, M. J. (2016). Vocal responses to noise reveal the presence of the Lombard effect in a frog. Behavioral Ecology, 27(2), 669–676.
Herrera-Montes, M. I., & Aide, T. M. (2011). Impacts of traffic noise on anuran and bird communities. Urban Ecosystems, 14, 415–427. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11252-011-0158-7.
Hof, C., Araujo, M. B., Jetz, W., & Rahbek, W. (2011). Additive threats from pathogens, climate and land-use change for global amphibian diversity. Nature, 48, 516–521.
Kaiser, K., & Hammers, J. L. (2009). The effect of anthropogenic noise on male advertisement call rate in the neotropical treefrog, Dendropsophus triangulum. Behaviour, 146, 1053–1069.
Kaiser, K., Scofield, D. G., Alloush, M., Jones, R. M., Marczak, S., Martineau, K., Oliva, M. A., & Narins, P. M. (2011). When sounds collide: The effect of anthropogenic noise on a breeding assemblage of frogs in Belize, Central America. Behaviour, 148, 215–232.
Kaiser, K., Devito, J., Jones, C. G., Marentes, A., Perez, R., Umeh, L., Weickum, R. M., McGovern, K. E., Wilson, E. H., & Saltzman, W. (2015). Effects of anthropogenic noise on endocrine and reproductive function in White’s treefrog, Litoria caerulea. Conservation Physiology, 3(1), cou061. https://doi.org/10.1093/conphys/cou061.
Lengagne, T. (2008). Traffic noise affects communication behaviour in a breeding anuran, Hyla arborea. Biological Conservation, 141, 2023–2031.
Lewis, E. R., & Narins, P. M. (1985). Do frogs communicate with seismic signals? Science, 227, 187–189.
Lopez, P. T., Narins, P. M., Lewis, E. R., & Moore, S. W. (1988). Acoustically induced call modification in the white-lipped frog, Leptodactylus albilabris. Animal Behaviour, 36, 1295–1308.
Love, E. K., & Bee, M. A. (2010). An experimental test of noise-dependent voice amplitude regulation in Cope’s gray treefrog, Hyla chrysoscelis. Animal Behaviour, 80, 509–515.
Mancera, K. F., Murray, P. J., Lisle, A., Dupont, C., Faucheux, F., & Phillips, C. J. C. (2017). The effects of acute exposure to mining machinery noise on the behavior of eastern blue-tongued lizards (Tiliqua scincoides). Animal Welfare, 26, 11–24. https://doi.org/10.7120/09627286.26.1.011.
Martin, K. J., Alessi, S. C., Gaspard, J. C., Tucker, A. D., Bauer, G. B., & Mann, D. A. (2012). Underwater hearing in the loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta): A comparison of behavioral and auditory evoked potential audiograms. Journal of Experimental Biology, 215, 3001–3009.
Megela-Simmons, A. (1984). Behavioral vocal response thresholds to mating calls in the bullfrog, Rana catesbeiana. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 76, 676–681.
Moss, C. F., & Simmons, A. M. (1986). Frequency selectivity of hearing in the green treefrog, Hyla cinerea. Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology, 159, 257–266.
Narins, P. M. (1982). Effects of masking noise on evoked calling in the Puerto Rican coqui (Anura: Leptodactylidae). Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology, 147, 439–446.
Narins, P. M. (1987). Coding of signals in noise by amphibian auditory nerve fibers. Hearing Research, 26, 145–154.
Narins, P. M., & Zelick, R. (1988). The effects of noise on auditory processing and behavior in amphibians. In B. Fritszch, M. J. Ryan, W. Wilczynski, T. Hetherington, & W. Walkowiak (Eds.), The Evolution of the Amphibian Auditory System (pp. 511–536). New York: John Wiley.
Narins, P. M., & Wagner, I. (1989). Noise susceptibility and immunity of phase locking in amphibian auditory-nerve fibers. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 85, 1255–1265.
Narins, P. M., & Clark, G. A. (2016). Principles of matched filtering with auditory examples from selected vertebrates. In G. von der Emde & E. Warrant (Eds.), The Ecology of Animal Senses: Matched Filtering for Economical Sensing (pp. 111–140). Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.
Narins, P. M., Feng, A. S., Schnitzler, H.-U., Denzinger, A., Suthers, R. A., Lin, W., & Xu, C.-H. (2004). Old World frog and bird vocalizations contain prominent ultrasonic harmonics. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 115, 910–913.
Narins, P. M., Wilson, M., & Mann, D. A. (2014). Ultrasound detection in fishes and frogs: Discovery and mechanisms. In C. Köppl, G. A. Manley, A. N. Popper, & R. R. Fay (Eds.), Insights from Comparative Hearing Research (pp. 133–156). New York: Springer-Verlag.
Narins, P. M., Stoeger-Horwath, A. & O’Connell-Rodwell, C. (2016). Infrasound and seismic communication in the vertebrates with special emphasis on the Afrotheria: An update and future directions. In R. A. Suthers, W. T. Fitch, R. R. Fay, & A. N. Popper (Eds.), Vertebrate Sound Production and Acoustic Communication (pp. 191–228). New York: Springer-Verlag.
Nelson, D. V., Klinck, H., Carbaugh-Rutland, A., Mathis, C. L., Morzillo, A. T., & Garcia, T. S. (2017). Calling at the highway: The spatiotemporal constraint of road noise on Pacific chorus frog communication. Ecology and Evolution, 7, 429–440. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2622.
Parris, K. M., Velik-Lord, M., & North, J. M. A. (2009). Frogs call at a higher pitch in traffic noise. Ecology and Society, 14, 25. Available at http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol14/iss1/art25/.
Pechmann, J. H. K., Scott, D. E., Semlitsch, R. D., Caldwell, J. P., Vitt, L. J., & Gibbons, J. W. (1991). Declining amphibian populations: The problem of separating human impacts from natural fluctuations. Science, 253, 892–895.
Penna, M., & Zúñiga, D. (2014). Strong responsiveness to noise interference in an anuran from the southern temperate forest. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 68, 85–97.
Penna, M., Pottstock, H., & Velásquez, N. (2005). Effect of natural and synthetic noise on evoked vocal responses in a frog of the temperate austral forest. Animal Behaviour, 70, 639–651.
Popper A. N., Hawkins, A. D., Fay, R. R., Mann, D. A., Bartol, S., Carlson, T. J., Coombs, S., Ellison, W. T., Gentry, R. L., Halvorsen, M. B., Lokkeborg, S., Rogers, P., Southall, B. L., Zeddies, D. G., & Tavolga, W. N. (2014). ASA S3/SC1. 4 TR-2014 Sound Exposure Guidelines for Fishes and Sea Turtles: A Technical Report Prepared by ANSI-Accredited Standards Committee S3/SC1 and Registered with ANSI. New York: Springer International Publishing.
Schwartz, J. J., & Wells, K. D. (1983a). An experimental study of acoustic interference between two species of neotropical treefrogs. Animal Behaviour, 31, 181–190.
Schwartz, J. J., & Wells, K. D. (1983b). The influence of background noise on the behavior of a neotropical treefrog, Hyla ebraccata. Herpetologica, 39, 121–192.
Schwartz, J. J., & Gerhardt, H. C. (1989). Spatially mediated release from masking in an anuran amphibian. Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology, 166, 37–41.
Schwartz, J. J., & Gerhardt, H. C. (1998). The neuroethology of frequency preferences in the spring peeper. Animal Behaviour, 56, 55–69.
Schwartz, J. J., & Bee, M. A. (2013). Anuran acoustic signal production in noisy environments. In H. Brumm (Ed.), Animal Communication and Noise (pp. 91–132). Berlin Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.
Schwartz, J. J., Buchanan, B. W., & Gerhardt, H. C. (2001). Female mate choice in the gray treefrog (Hyla versicolor) in three experimental environments. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 49, 443–455.
Shen, J.-X., Xu, Z.-M., Feng, A., and Narins, P. M. (2011). Large odorous frogs (Odorrana graminea) produce ultrasonic calls. Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology, 197, 1027–1030. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-011-0660-7.
Simmons, A. M. (1988). Masking patterns in the bullfrog (Rana catesbeiana). I: Behavioral effects. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 83, 1087–1092.
Simmons, A. M., Schwartz, J. J., & Ferragamo, M. (1992). Auditory nerve representation of a complex communication sound in background noise. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 91, 2831–2844.
Sun, J. W. C., & Narins, P. M. (2005). Anthropogenic sounds differentially affect amphibian call rate. Biological Conservation, 121, 419–427.
Tennessen, J. B., Parks, S. E., & Langkilde, T. (2014). Traffic noise causes physiological stress and impairs breeding migration behavior in frogs. Conservation Physiology, 2, cou032. https://doi.org/10.1093/conphys/cou032.
Vargas-Salinas, F., & Amézquita, A. (2013). Traffic noise correlates with calling time but not spatial distribution in the threatened poison frog Adinobates bombetes. Behaviour, 150, 569–584.
Vargas-Salinas, F., Cunnington, G. M., Amézquita, A., & Fahrig, L. (2014). Does traffic noise alter calling time in frogs and toads? A case study of anurans in eastern Ontario, Canada. Urban Ecosystems, 17, 945–953.
Velez, A., Schwartz, J. J., & Bee, M. A. (2013). Anuran acoustic signal perception in noisy environments. In H. Brumm (Ed.), Animal Communication and Noise (pp. 133–185). Berlin Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.
Vergne, A. L., Pritz, M. B., & Mathevon, N. (2009). Acoustic communication in crocodilians: From behaviour to brain. Biological Reviews, 84, 391–411.
Wollerman, L., & Wiley, H. (2002). Background noise from a natural chorus alters female discrimination of male calls in a Neotropical frog. Animal Behaviour, 63, 15–22.
Zelick, R., & Narins, P. M. (1983). Intensity discrimination and the precision of call timing in two species of neotropical treefrogs. Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology,153, 403–412.
Zelick, R., & Narins, P. M. (1985). Characterization of the advertisement call oscillator in the frog Eleutherodactylus coqui. Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology,156, 223–229.
Compliance with Ethics Requirements
Andrea M. Simmons declares that she has no conflict of interest.
Peter M. Narins declares that he has no conflict of interest.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Simmons, A.M., Narins, P.M. (2018). Effects of Anthropogenic Noise on Amphibians and Reptiles. In: Slabbekoorn, H., Dooling, R., Popper, A., Fay, R. (eds) Effects of Anthropogenic Noise on Animals. Springer Handbook of Auditory Research, vol 66. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-8574-6_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-8574-6_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-8572-2
Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-8574-6
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)