Exposure to noise pollution across North American passerines supports the noise filter hypothesis

Abstract

The noise filter hypothesis predicts that species using higher sound frequencies should be more tolerant of noise pollution, because anthropogenic noise is more intense at low frequencies. Recent work analysed continental-scale data on anthropogenic noise across the USA and found that passerine species inhabiting more noise-polluted areas do not have higher peak song frequency but have more complex songs. However, this metric of song complexity is of ambiguous interpretation, because it can indicate either diverse syllables or a larger frequency bandwidth. In the latter case, the finding would support the noise filter hypothesis, because larger frequency bandwidths mean that more sound energy spreads to frequencies that are less masked by anthropogenic noise. We reanalysed how passerine song predicts exposure to noise using a more thorough dataset of acoustic song measurements, and showed that it is large frequency bandwidths, rather than diverse syllables, that predict the exposure of species to noise pollution. Given that larger bandwidths often encompass higher maximum frequencies, which are less masked by anthropogenic noise, our result suggests that tolerance to noise pollution might depend mostly on having the high-frequency parts of song little masked by noise, thus preventing acoustic communication from going entirely unnoticed at long distances.