Traffic noise and breeding site characteristics influencing assemblage composition of anuran species associated to roads

GRENAT, PABLO R.; MICHELLI, MATEO; POLLO, FAVIO E.; OTERO, MANUEL A.; BARAQUET, MARIANA; MARTINO, ADOLFO L.

BIODIVERSITY AND CONSERVATION

SPRINGER

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2023

0960-3115

The development of roadinfrastructures causes the loss and fragmentation of natural habitats, structurally,due to the landscape reconfiguration, and functionally, due to the noise ofvehicular traffic, in animals that communicate through sounds. We quantify thedegree of disturbance in roads with different vehicular traffic intensity andto evaluate the choice of reproductive sites by anuran species. Between 2018and 2020, 13 ponds associated to roads with medium-low (RP-30) and high levelsof vehicular traffic (NR-A005) were sampled. For each site were surveyed variablesof pond and surrounding habitat and records of ambient noise, characterizedspectrally and temporally. The presence of anuran species and their relativeabundance were measured. Significant differences were found between roads inall noise variables, being greater in the RN-A005, except for theaverage entropy that was higher for the RP-30. The specific richness and the average relative abundance were higherin the RP30 sites, which generally presented significantly lower noise levels; lowerurbanization, more vegetated roadsides; greater distances and steep slopes fromthe roadway, reducing the spread of noise; presence, mainly, of ruralenvironments on both roadsides contributing low additional levels of anthropicnoise. Our results show that the structure of the noise profile and the degreeto which noise is spread and perceived in the reproductive sites of anurans,depends on a set of variables specific to each habitat that should beconsidered when conducting studies that evaluate the responses of individualsto this type of contamination