Testing the AC/DC hypothesis: Rock and roll is noise pollution and weakens a trophic cascade

Anthropogenic sound is increasingly considered a major environmental issue, but its effects are relatively unstudied. Organisms may be directly affected by anthropogenic sound in many ways, including interference with their ability to detect mates, predators, or food, and disturbances that directly...

Full description

Saved in:

Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Ecology and evolution 2018-08, Vol.8 (15), p.7649-7656
Main Authors:	Barton, Brandon T., Hodge, Mariah E., Speights, Cori J., Autrey, Anna M., Lashley, Marcus A., Klink, Vincent P.
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Acoustics Agricultural equipment Anthropogenic factors aphids Beetles biological control Cascades Communities Construction equipment Environmental effects Feeding trials Food chains Food webs global change Growth chambers Hypotheses Insects Interspecific lady beetles Music Noise pollution Null hypothesis Original Research Plant biomass Plant growth Planting density Predators predator‐prey interaction Rock music Rocks Sirens Sound sound pollution soybean Soybeans trophic cascade
Online Access:	Get full text
Tags:	Add Tag No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!

Description
Summary:	Anthropogenic sound is increasingly considered a major environmental issue, but its effects are relatively unstudied. Organisms may be directly affected by anthropogenic sound in many ways, including interference with their ability to detect mates, predators, or food, and disturbances that directly affect one organism may in turn have indirect effects on others. Thus, to fully appreciate the net effect of anthropogenic sound, it may be important to consider both direct and indirect effects. We report here on a series of experiments to test the hypothesis that anthropogenic sound can generate cascading indirect effects within a community. We used a study system of lady beetles, soybean aphids, and soybean plants, which are a useful model for studying the direct and indirect effects of global change on food webs. For sound treatments, we used several types of music, as well as a mix of urban sounds (e.g., sirens, vehicles, and construction equipment), each at volumes comparable to a busy city street or farm tractor. In 18‐hr feeding trials, rock music and urban sounds caused lady beetles to consume fewer aphids, but other types of music had no effect even at the same volume. We then tested the effect of rock music on the strength of trophic cascades in a 2‐week experiment in plant growth chambers. When exposed to music by AC/DC, who articulated the null hypothesis that “rock and roll ain't noise pollution” in a song of the same name, lady beetles were less effective predators, resulting in higher aphid density and reduced final plant biomass relative to control (no music) treatments. While it is unclear what characteristics of sound generate these effects, our results reject the AC/DC hypothesis and demonstrate that altered interspecific interactions can transmit the indirect effects of anthropogenic noise through a community. The indirect effects of sound pollution within ecological communities are poorly understood. We show here that sound pollution can indirectly affect plant biomass by reducing predator activity and increasing herbivore abundance.
ISSN:	2045-7758 2045-7758