Artificial light at night and anthropogenic noise alter the foraging activity and structure of vertebrate communities

Abstract

Light and noise pollution from human activity are increasing at a dramatic rate. These sensory stimuli can have a wide range of effects on animal behavior, reproductive success, and physiology. However, less is known about the functional and community-level consequences of these sensory pollutants, especially when they co-occur. Using camera traps in a manipulative field experiment, we studied the effects of anthropogenic light and noise, singularly and in tandem, on richness and community turnover at both the taxa and functional group level as well as foraging activity. We showed that both light and noise pollution did alter taxonomic richness and that these effects can differ depending on the scale of observation. Increases in light levels had a negative effect on richness at the camera-level scale, but light-treated sites had the highest pooled (i.e., cumulative) richness of all treatment types. In contrast, noise was found to have a negative effect on cumulative richness; however, when both stimuli were present, the addition of night-lighting mitigated the effects of noise. Artificial light and moonlight had the strongest influence on community turnover, and results remained consistent at both the taxa and functional group level. Additionally, increases in ambient noise and moonlight, but not artificial light, reduced foraging activity. Our study provides evidence that alterations to the sensory environment can alter the richness and composition of communities and that effects can be scale-dependent and also alter foraging behavior. Unexpectedly, the addition of artificial light may have mitigated the negative effects of noise on cumulative taxonomic richness. This highlights the importance of researching the consequences of co-exposure to these globally common pollutants.