Inaudible Noise Pollution of the Invertebrate World

Abstract

Introduction Anthropogenic sound is widely recognized as an issue of environmental concern (Shannon et al., 2016). Produced by human activities like those associated with urbanization, economic development, transportation networks, and recreation, anthropogenic sound now penetrates some of the quietest places on Earth (Buxton et al., 2017). In fact, over 60% of US protected lands experience noise levels double those of background noise, despite their distance from major metropolitan areas (Buxton et al., 2017). For vertebrates, the consequences of noise in natural landscapes have been found to be multifaceted, impacting mating, movement, predator-prey dynamics, and physiology (Shannon et al., 2016). However, research has mostly focused on the impacts of pressure waves on vertebrates, with the impact of anthropogenic sound on invertebrates and the acoustic modalities they rely on (mainly particle motion and substrate-borne sound) remaining largely unstudied.