ArticleScientific reports2018
Urban sparrows respond to a sexually selected trait with increased aggression in noise.
Article in Scientific reports, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 64 citations in OpenAlex.
- The impact of urbanisation on social behaviour: a comprehensive review.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2026Pooled it
- Flexibility of Territorial Aggression in Urban and Rural Chaffinches.Ecology and evolution · 2026Article
- Ecological Exposure History Shapes Giraffe Vigilance Responses to Anthropogenic Noise: A Multisite Playback Experiment.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Galápagos yellow warblers differ in behavioural plasticity in response to traffic noise depending on proximity to road.Animal behaviour · 2025Article
- Effects of light and noise pollution on avian communities of European cities are correlated with the species' diet.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- How urbanization affects sexual communication.Ecology and evolution · 2021Review
- A community context for aggression? Multi-species audience effects on territorial aggression in two species of Paridae.Ecology and evolution · 2021Article
- Acoustic preadaptation to transmit vocal individuality of savanna nightjars in noisy urban environments.Scientific reports · 2020Article
- Cities as evolutionary experiments: As cities and other man-made environments encroach on natural settings, species evolve to cope.EMBO reports · 2019Article
- Aircraft sound exposure leads to song frequency decline and elevated aggression in wild chiffchaffs.The Journal of animal ecology · 2019Article
- Anthropogenic noise affects male house wren response to but not detection of territorial intruders.PloS one · 2019Article
- Acoustic adaptation to city noise through vocal learning by a songbird.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2018Article
- Urban sensory conditions alter rival interactions and mate choice in urban and forest túngara frogs.Behavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral EcologyArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Animals modify acoustic communication signals in response to noise pollution, but consequences of these modifications are unknown. Vocalizations that transmit best in noise may not be those that best signal male quality, leading to potential conflict between selection pressures. For example, slow paced, narrow bandwidth songs transmit better in noise but are less effective in mate choice and competition than fast paced, wide bandwidth songs. We test the hypothesis that noise affects response to song pace and bandwidth in the context of competition using white-crowned sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys). We measure male response to song variation along a gradient of ambient noise levels in San Francisco, CA. We find that males discriminate between wide and narrow bandwidth songs but not between slow and fast paced songs. These findings are biologically relevant because songs in noisy areas tend to have narrow bandwidths. Therefore, this song phenotype potentially increases transmission distance in noise, but elicits weaker responses from competitors. Further, we find that males respond more strongly to stimuli in noisier conditions, supporting the 'urban anger' hypothesis. We suggest that noise affects male responsiveness to song, possibly leading to more territorial conflict in urban areas.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.