Liu Quanxiao, Slabbekoorn Hans, Riebel Katharina
Department of Zoology, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
Institute of Biology Leiden, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Biol Lett. 2025 Jan;21(1):20240575. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2024.0575. Epub 2025 Jan 8.
Noise pollution is on the rise worldwide. An unresolved issue regarding the mitigation of noise pollution is whether and at which timescales animals may adapt to noise pollution. Here, we tested whether continuous highway noise exposure perinatally and during juvenile development increased noise tolerance in a songbird, the zebra finch (). Breeding pairs were exposed to highway noise recordings from pre-egg-laying until their offspring reached subadulthood. Subsequently, offspring were tested for noise tolerance both as subadults and adults in a spatial preference test, where birds could choose to enter aviaries with different levels of highway noise. Unlike control birds that preferentially chose the quiet aviaries, noise-reared birds exhibited no spatial preferences for quiet in the first test. However, when the experimental birds were retested after two months without noise exposure, they now avoided the previously tolerated noise levels and preferred the quieter aviary. The increased noise tolerance observed directly after the release from the noise treatment was thus only transient. Growing up with chronic highway noise exposure did thus not increase subjects' noise tolerance, meaning that at least in this songbird species, adaptation to noise pollution is unlikely to arise on a developmental time scale.
全球范围内，噪音污染正呈上升趋势。关于减轻噪音污染的一个尚未解决的问题是，动物是否以及在何种时间尺度上能够适应噪音污染。在此，我们测试了在围产期和幼年期持续暴露于高速公路噪音是否会提高一种鸣禽——斑胸草雀的噪音耐受性。繁殖对从产卵前一直到其后代达到亚成年期都暴露于高速公路噪音录音中。随后，在空间偏好测试中，对后代作为亚成年鸟和成年鸟时的噪音耐受性进行了测试，在该测试中，鸟类可以选择进入具有不同高速公路噪音水平的鸟舍。与优先选择安静鸟舍的对照鸟不同，在首次测试中，经噪音饲养的鸟对安静环境没有空间偏好。然而，当实验鸟在没有噪音暴露的情况下两个月后重新测试时，它们现在避开了之前能耐受的噪音水平，更喜欢较安静的鸟舍。因此，在从噪音处理中释放后直接观察到的噪音耐受性增加只是暂时的。在长期高速公路噪音暴露下成长并没有提高实验对象的噪音耐受性，这意味着至少在这种鸣禽物种中，在发育时间尺度上不太可能出现对噪音污染的适应。
