Effects of anthropogenic noise on endocrine and reproductive function in White's treefrog, Litoria caerulea.

Kristine Kaiser,Adam Marentes,Caitlin G Jones,Rachel Perez,Emma H Wilson,Kathryn E Mcgovern,Wendy Saltzman,Julia Devito,Lisa Umeh,Regina M Weickum

doi:10.1093/conphys/cou061

Kristine Kaiser, Adam Marentes + Show 8 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1093/conphys/cou061

Copy DOI

Abstract

Urbanization is a major driver of ecological change and comes with a suite of habitat modifications, including alterations to the local temperature, precipitation, light and noise regimes. Although many recent studies have investigated the behavioural and ecological ramifications of urbanization, physiological work in this area has lagged. We tested the hypothesis that anthropogenic noise is a stressor for amphibians and that chronic exposure to such noise leads to reproductive suppression. In the laboratory, we exposed male White's treefrogs, Litoria caerulea, to conspecific chorus noise either alone or coupled with pre-recorded traffic noise nightly for 1 week. Frogs presented with anthropogenic noise had significantly higher circulating concentrations of corticosterone and significantly decreased sperm count and sperm viability than did control frogs. These results suggest that in addition to having behavioural and ecological effects, anthropogenic change might alter physiology and Darwinian fitness. Future work should integrate disparate fields such as behaviour, ecology and physiology to elucidate fully organisms' responses to habitat change.

Highlights

Urbanization is increasing globally at a rapid rate, with few places escaping human-induced change (Ellis, 2011)
Circulating concentrations of corticosterone did not differ between the control 1 and control 2 groups, so these groups were pooled into a single control group for further analyses
Circulating CORT concentrations increased both throughout the course of the experiment and with exposure to traffic noise (Fig. 1). Both groups demonstrated an increase in plasma CORT concentrations over the course of the study, but frogs subjected to traffic noise had a higher mean circulating CORT concentration at the end of the experiment (F1,23 = 8.152, P = 0.009)

Summary

Introduction

Urbanization is increasing globally at a rapid rate, with few places escaping human-induced change (Ellis, 2011). 2005; Sun and Narins, 2005; Kaiser and Hammers, 2009; Parris et al, 2009; Kaiser et al, 2011) These types of habitat alterations can lead to stress in animals (reviewed by Bonier, 2012). Habitat change has been associated with increases in CORT across taxa (Newcomb-Homan et al, 2003; Martínez-Mota et al, 2007; Herrera et al, 2009; Sheriff et al, 2010), there remains a dearth of controlled studies investigating the impact of urbanization on endocrine function (reviewed by Bonier, 2012). Even fewer studies trace the downstream effects of such stressors (e.g. pathology) or their ramifications for fitness

Methods

Results

Conclusion