Urban Noise and Bird Diversity: COVID-19 Lockdown Impact | InformativeBD

 

Garima Tiwari and Fergus Mark Anthony, from the different institute of india wrote a research article about Urban Noise and Bird Diversity: COVID-19 Lockdown Impact, entitled, "Anthropogenic noise reduces bird species richness and diversity along a Rur-urban gradient: A case study from a city in central India during nationwide lockdown amid COVID-19". This research paper published by the  Journal Of Biodiversity and Environmental Science |JBES an open scholarly research journal on Biodiversity, under the affiliation of the International Network For Natural Science |INNSpub. an open access multidiciplinary research publisher.

Abstract

Urbanization is increasing rapidly in all parts of the world to accommodate the increasing human population but it is having a drastic effect on native flora and fauna. The present study was carried out across a three stage urbanization gradient in and around the city of Bilaspur, Chhattisgarh. Observations were made from September 2019 to February 2021 at the selected three sites during COVID 19 pandemic. Point count method was used for bird surveys and Sound pressure (Noise) measurements were made across the three selected sites. The Avian diversity was measured by total species richness, Fisher’s alpha diversity index and Shannon-Wiener diversity index. The Urban centre recorded the highest sound pressure and lowest Avian species richness but as we moved away from the urban centre the noise levels reduced and the avain species richness increased towards the rural areas. This is mainly due to many avian species avoiding urban areas because of increasing noise levels. We also found that the urban bird community is dominated by a few species whereas the rural bird community was much more diverse.

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Introduction

As the current world population keeps growing at a rapid rate, accompanied Parallelly by urbanisation more and more local biodiversity is being affected. A very few studies have been carried out to study the consequences of Urbanization on birds (Sengupta et al., 2014) Earlier studies showed a high bird abundance in Indian cities which could be because of the food availability, vegetative cover and the Indian virtue of generosity towards all living forms (Galushin 1971). The past studies on Urban birds across the Indian subcontinent have shown a rich species diversity where 125 bird species were recorded in the urbanized habitats of Pauri District, Garhwal Himalaya, Uttarakhand State, 88 species on the Amravati University Campus and 76 species were recorded on a campus of the Punjabi University, Pakistan (Nathani et al., 2012; Wadatkar 2001). But the most recent study from Kolkata, however, recorded only 48 bird species across different urban habitats where the higher species richness was towards the rural areas and species richness went down as they approached the city centre (Sengupta et al., 2014).

Urban habitats are quite different from the natural areas, due to which the species dwelling in these areas face higher competition with exotic species, higher risk of predation and parasites, as well as stress due to chemical pollution and noise (Jokimäki 1999; Slabbekoorn 2008). Noise pollution in cities is a relatively recent phenomenon that birds now have to cope up with throughout much of the world. Whether a given avian species will be a “winner” (urban-adapted or urban-exploiter species) or “loser” (urban-avoiding species) is determined by an interaction between land use and life history traits of that particular species (McKinney et al., 1999). Noise induced changes on birds include stress, flight, changes in foraging, louder calls and other reactions based on physical observations. This can ultimately result in permanent hearing loss in avian populations (Niemiec et al., 1994). Loud sounds from urban sources like industries, vehicular traffic etc. damages sensory organs of birds as well as affect their reproductive success. Traffic noise had a negative effect on reproductive success on great tits (Parus major) with females laying smaller clutches in noisier areas (Halfwerk et al., 2011). The urban avian community is greatly influenced by the land use changes and the life history traits of selected species as to whether they will adapt to the urban scenario or end up avoiding the habitat (Blair 2001).

Vehicles contribute the majority towards urban noise (Zannin et al., 2002; Perillo et al., 2017). Vehicular noise affects bird distributions, reducing density, richness and abundance in sites where noise pollution is intense (Rheindt 2003; Arévalo et al., 2011; mc Clure et al., 2013). Increased Noise Pollution has resulted in birds having to make louder calls.

Vocalization in birds is governed by Energy costs and body size in order to increase their amplitude to rise above background noise (Brackenbury 1979; Brumm 2004; Oberweger et al., 2001). Sexual selection and social integration is birds is based on acoustic communication (Catchpole et al., 2003). If birds must change their vocalization it might affects many facets of their life causing immense stress on them.

The present study was carried out with an aim to study the impact of increasing sound pressure (Noise) in urban areas on birds. Noise pollution has become a major problem in today world as human population is increases. Birds being a visible part of the ecosystem help in providing information on the overall condition like quality and changes in the environment as well as community composition therefore they are called as ecosystem health indicators. Such studies can help to predict the effect of anthropogenic noise in the current scenario.

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Source: Anthropogenic noise reduces bird species richness and diversity along a Rur-urban gradient: A case study from a city in central India during nationwide lockdown amid COVID-19