Abstract:
Acoustic communication involves the transmission and reception of signals that carry important messages, such as territory ownership, mate attraction, and predation risk. However, background noise can interfere with acoustic communication and disrupt interspecific and intraspecific interactions, especially in urban landscapes where background noise is elevated by anthropogenic activity. A wide variety of animal taxa alter their behavior in the presence of relatively high levels of anthropogenic noise. It is important to understand how behavior changes in relation to anthropogenic noise because behavioral modification can have larger implications for fitness, reproductive success, population viability, and ultimately ecosystem integrity.
