ArticleConservation physiology2019
Traffic noise exposure depresses plasma corticosterone and delays offspring growth in breeding zebra finches.
Article in Conservation physiology, 2019. 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.
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 45 citations in OpenAlex.
- An experimental test of chronic traffic noise exposure on parental behaviour and reproduction in zebra finches.Biology open · 2022Pooled it
- When Does Stress Build Strength? Linking Stress Physiology to Resilience in the Age of Rapid Environmental Change.BioEssays : news and reviews in molecular, cellular and developmental biology · 2026Review
- Exploring stress and morphology in two songbird species across urban, agricultural, and natural habitats on San Cristobal Island, Galapagos.BMC zoology · 2025Article
- Growing up with chronic traffic noise exposure leads to transient but not long-term noise tolerance in a songbird.Biology letters · 2025Article
- Effects of Road-traffic Disturbances on the Bird Community of a Subtropical Island.Zoological studies · 2024Article
- Article
- Meta-analysis reveals between-population differences affect the link between glucocorticoids and population health.Conservation physiology · 2023Article
- 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
- Effects of urbanisation and pollution on the heterophil/lymphocyte ratio in birds from Brazilian Cerrado.Environmental science and pollution research international · 2022Article
- Changes to the gut microbiota of a wild juvenile passerine in a multidimensional urban mosaic.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Traffic noise disrupts vocal development and suppresses immune function.Science advances · 2021Article
- Environment and COVID-19: Pollutants, impacts, dissemination, management and recommendations for facing future epidemic threats.The Science of the total environment · 2020Article
- Feather corticosterone does not correlate with environmental stressors or body condition in an endangered waterbird.Conservation physiology · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The impact of human activity on the acoustic environment is overwhelming, with anthropogenic noise reaching even remote areas of the planet. The World Health Organization has identified noise pollution as one of the leading environmental health risks in humans, and it has been linked to a myriad of short- and long-term health effects in exposed individuals. However, less is known about the health effects of anthropogenic noise exposure on animals. We investigated long- and short-term effects of traffic noise on zebra finches breeding in small communal aviaries, using a repeated measures design. Birds bred in both noise and no-noise conditions, and we measured baseline plasma glucocorticoid levels before, during and after breeding. In addition, we assayed immune function, measured reproductive success and offspring growth and compared rates of extra-pair paternity of breeding adults. Breeding birds had significantly lower baseline plasma corticosterone levels when exposed to traffic noise than when they were not exposed to noise playback. In addition, the nestlings reared during noise exposure were lighter than nestlings of the same parents when breeding in control conditions. Our results suggest that traffic noise poses a more severe hurdle to birds at more vulnerable stages of their life history, such as during reproductive events and ontogeny. While chronic exposure to traffic noise in our birds did not, by itself, prove to be a sufficient stressor to cause acute effects on health or reproductive success in exposed individuals, it did result in disruptions to normal glucocorticoid profiles and delayed offspring growth. However, animals living in urban habitats are exposed to a multitude of anthropogenic disturbances, and it is likely that even species that appear to be thriving in noisy environments may suffer cumulative effects of these multiple disturbances that may together impact their fitness in urban environments.
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Registered trials
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