Spring peepers Pseudacris crucifer modify their call structure in response to noise
Acoustic?interference?can?impede?effective?communication?that?is?important?for?survival?and?reproduction?of?animals.?In?response?to?acoustic?interference,?some?animals?can?improve?signalling?efficacy?by?altering?the?structure?of?their?signals.?In?this?study,?we?played?artificial?noise?to?46?male?spring?peepers?Pseudacris?crucifer,?on?their?breeding?grounds,?and?tested?whether?the?noise?affected?the?duration,?call?rate,?and?peak?frequency?of?their?advertisement?calls.?We?used?two?experimental?noise?treatments?that?masked?either?the?high-?or?low-frequency?components?of?an?average?advertisement?call;?this?allowed?us?to?evaluate?whether?frogs?adaptively?shift?the?peak?frequency?of?their?calls?away?from?both?types?of?interference.?Our?playback?treatments?caused?spring?peepers?to?produce?shorter?calls,?and?the?high-frequency?noise?treatment?caused?them?to?lower?the?frequency?of?their?calls?immediately?after?the?noise?ceased.?Call?rate?did?not?change?in?response?to?playback.?Consistent?with?previous?studies,?ambient?temperature?was?inversely?related?to?call?duration?and?positively?related?to?call?rate.?We?conclude?that?noise?affects?the?structure?of?spring?peeper?advertisement?calls,?and?that?spring?peepers?therefore?have?a?mechanism?for?altering?signal?structure?in?response?to?noise.?Future?studies?should?test?if?other?types?of?noise,?such?as?biotic?or?anthropogenic?noise,?have?similar?effects?on?call?structure,?and?if?the?observed?changes?to?call?structure?enhance?or?impair?communication?in?noisy?environments?[Current?Zoology?60?(4):?438-448,?2014].
Dalai E. L. HANNA,David R. WILSON,Gabriel BLOUIN-DEMERS,Daniel J. MENNILL - 动物学报(英文版)
文章来源： 万方数据
