Abstract
Between-individual differences in personality and life-history traits can arise from both genetic and environmental factors, with the latter possibly reflecting contrasting individual experiences during ontogeny. It is yet unclear how the acoustic environment may affect the development of boldness and related life-history traits such as growth rate, maturation age and longevity in species that normally rely on acoustic cues to adjust their behaviours. We studied if long-term exposure of field cricket Gryllus integer nymphs to traffic noise or acoustic conspecific signalling would affect the level or repeatability of boldness or life history traits. An integrative boldness score was statistically significantly repeatable in control and cricket sound groups, but not in the traffic noise group. However, our data did not show any effect of acoustic treatment on individual boldness. Acoustic treatments had no effects on life-history traits, either. Future studies are needed to confirm whether the acoustic environment could affect the development of personality and behavioural consistency.
Highlights
IntroductionAnimals inhabit an acoustic environment that encompasses various types of information originating from biotic (conspecifics, individuals from other taxa, predators, etc.) or abiotic (rain, waterfall, wind-induced vegetation movement, noises produced by human technologies, etc.) sources
Animals inhabit an acoustic environment that encompasses various types of information originating from biotic or abiotic sources
All three measured behavioural response variables were combined into one principal component that explained most of the variance in behaviour and reflected boldness (Table 1)
Summary
Animals inhabit an acoustic environment that encompasses various types of information originating from biotic (conspecifics, individuals from other taxa, predators, etc.) or abiotic (rain, waterfall, wind-induced vegetation movement, noises produced by human technologies, etc.) sources. The acoustic environment is known to affect life-history traits (DiRienzo et al 2012) and to potentially favour and modify certain personality traits (Lowry et al 2013) Noise pollution, such as traffic noise, can mask important natural acoustic information, which could imply that living in a high noise level urban habitat represents a challenge for many animal taxa (Barber et al 2010; Laiolo 2010; Brumm 2013; Farina 2014; Holt and Johnston 2015). Animals show adaptations to louder environmental conditions in urban settings These adaptations can include physiological (e.g. neuroendocrinological, immunological, cardiovascular, metabolic, reproductive) and behavioural changes like modified activity patterns or avoidance of certain areas (Popper 2003; Tyack 2008; Barber et al 2010; Kight and Swaddle 2011). Noisy conditions can trigger alterations in acoustic communication, as demonstrated in fishes
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