ArticleThe Journal of animal ecology2019
Aircraft sound exposure leads to song frequency decline and elevated aggression in wild chiffchaffs.
Article in The Journal of animal ecology, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 46 citations in OpenAlex.
- The impact of urbanisation on social behaviour: a comprehensive review.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2026Pooled it
- Cut through the noise: vocal signals and auditory processing vary along an urbanization gradient in Pacific treefrogs.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2026Article
- Anuran communities increase aggregations of conspecific calls in response to aircraft noise.Current zoology · 2025Article
- Growing up with chronic traffic noise exposure leads to transient but not long-term noise tolerance in a songbird.Biology letters · 2025Article
- Animal personality in multiple stressor environments: the evolutionary ecology of among-individual differences in responses to stressor suites.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Review
- Long-term effects of noise pollution on the avian dawn chorus: a natural experiment facilitated by the closure of an international airport.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2022Article
- Male and female songs propagation in a duetting tropical bird species in its preferred and secondary habitat.PloS one · 2022Article
- Soundscape dynamics of a cold protected forest: dominance of aircraft noise.Landscape ecology · 2022Article
- Article
- Impacts of additional noise on the social interactions of a cooperatively breeding fish.Royal Society open science · 2021Article
- Aircraft events correspond with vocal behavior in a passerine.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Seasonality and social factors, but not noise pollution, influence the song characteristics of two leaf warbler species.PloS one · 2021Article
- Aircraft sound exposure leads to song frequency decline and elevated aggression in wild chiffchaffs.The Journal of animal ecology · 2019Article
- A cross-taxonomic explanatory framework for mobbing behavior.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
4 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
The ubiquitous anthropogenic low-frequency noise impedes communication by masking animal signals. To overcome this communication barrier, animals may increase the frequency, amplitude and delivery rate of their acoustic signals, making them more easily heard. However, a direct impact of intermittent, high-level aircraft noise on birds' behaviour living close to a runway has not been studied in detail. We recorded common chiffchaffs Phylloscopus collybita songs near two airports and nearby control areas, and we measured sound levels in their territories at Manchester Airport. The song recordings were made in between aircraft movements, when ambient sound levels were similar between airport and control populations. We also conducted playback experiments at the airport and a control population to test the salience of airport, and control population specific songs. In contrast to the general pattern of increased song frequency in noisy areas, we show that common chiffchaffs at airports show a negative relationship between noise exposure level and song frequency. Experimental data show that chiffchaffs living near airports also respond more aggressively to song playback. Since the decrease in song frequency results in increased overlap with aircraft noise, these findings cannot be explained as an adaptation to improve communication. The increased levels of aggression suggest that chiffchaffs, like humans, might be affected behaviourally by extreme noise pollution. These findings should influence environmental impact assessments for airport expansions globally.
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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.