Underwater sound generated by pile driving during construction of offshore wind farms is a major concern in many countries. This paper reports on the acoustic stress responses in young European sea bass Dicentrarchus labrax (68 and 115 days old), based on four in situ experiments as close as 45 m from a pile driving activity. As a primary stress response, whole-body cortisol seemed to be too sensitive to ‘handling’ bias. On the other hand, measured secondary stress responses to pile driving showed significant reductions in oxygen consumption rate and low whole-body lactate concentrations. Furthermore, repeated exposure to impulsive sound significantly affected both primary and secondary stress responses. Under laboratory conditions, no tertiary stress responses (no changes in specific growth rate or Fulton's condition factor) were noted in young sea bass 30 days after the treatment. Still, the demonstrated acute stress responses and potentially repeated exposure to impulsive sound in the field will inevitably lead to less fit fish in the wild.

Ambient noise has increased in extent, duration and intensity with significant implications for species’ lives. Birds especially, because they heavily rely on vocal communication, are highly sensitive towards noise pollution. Noise can impair the quality of a territory or hamper the transmission of vocal signals such as song. The latter has significant fitness consequences as it may erode partner preferences in the context of mate choice. Additional fitness costs may arise if noise masks communication between soliciting offspring and providing parents during the period of parental care. Here, we experimentally manipulated the acoustic environment of blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus) families within their nest boxes with playbacks of previously recorded highway noise and investigated the consequences on parent-offspring communication. We hypothesized that noise interferes with the acoustic cues of parental arrival and vocal components of offspring begging. As such we expected an increase in the frequency of missed detections, when nestlings fail to respond to the returning parent, and a decrease in parental provisioning rates. Parents significantly reduced their rate of provisioning in noisy conditions compared to a control treatment. This reduction is likely to be the consequence of a parental misinterpretation of the offspring hunger level, as we found that nestlings fail to respond to the returning parent more frequently in the presence of noise. Noise also potentially masks vocal begging components, again contributing to parental underestimation of offspring requirements. Either way, it appears that noise impaired parent-offspring communication is likely to reduce reproductive success.

Anthropogenic noise is rapidly becoming a universal environmental feature. While the impacts of such additional noise on avian sexual signals are well documented, our understanding of its effect in other terrestrial taxa, on other vocalisations, and on receivers is more limited. Little is known, for example, about the influence of anthropogenic noise on responses to vocalisations relating to predation risk, despite the potential fitness consequences. We use playback experiments to investigate the impact of traffic noise on the responses of foraging dwarf mongooses (Helogale parvula) to surveillance calls produced by sentinels, individuals scanning for danger from a raised position whose presence usually results in reduced vigilance by foragers. Foragers exhibited a lessened response to surveillance calls in traffic-noise compared to ambient-sound playback, increasing personal vigilance. A second playback experiment, using noise playbacks without surveillance calls, suggests that the increased vigilance could arise in part from the direct influence of additional noise as there was an increase in response to traffic-noise playback alone. Acoustic masking could also play a role. Foragers maintained the ability to distinguish between sentinels of different dominance class, increasing personal vigilance when presented with subordinate surveillance calls compared to calls of a dominant groupmate in both noise treatments, suggesting complete masking was not occurring. However, an acoustic-transmission experiment showed that while surveillance calls were potentially audible during approaching traffic noise, they were probably inaudible during peak traffic intensity noise. While recent work has demonstrated detrimental effects of anthropogenic noise on defensive responses to actual predatory attacks, which are relatively rare, our results provide evidence of a potentially more widespread influence since animals should constantly assess background risk to optimise the foraging–vigilance trade-off.

Urban road traffic is a major joint emission source for particles and ambient noise. This study explores the relationship between both environmental stressors at an urban traffic site and analyses the potential to model particle number size distributions (NSD) from measurements of ambient noise frequency levels. Thus, a measurement campaign was conducted within an urban street canyon covering a period of 50 days. First, noise frequency levels were used to successfully model traffic intensity at the street canyon site on a half-hourly basis (R2 = 0.78). Thereafter, two multiple linear regression models were built to calculate NSD using noise frequency levels in combination with meteorological quantities (wind speed and air temperature) and air pollutant data (NO2) as explanatory variables. Implementation of meteorological quantities in Model 1 captured the diurnal variation of measured NSD. However, total particle number concentration (TNC) as derived from modelled NSD underestimated observed TNC. Implementation of NO2 led to higher model performance for TNC (R2 = 0.57) but not for particle NSD. Detailed information about urban background particle concentrations as a proxy for local conditions and about boundary layer conditions (e.g. atmospheric stability, mixing layer height) might help improving the model. The spatial characteristics of the site and their acoustical effects were not considered in the present approach (e.g. distance to road or buildings, road surface), hence, the results should be transferred to other sites with some caution.

Underwater noise, whether of natural or anthropogenic origin, has the ability to interfere with the way in which marine mammals receive acoustic signals (i.e., for communication, social interaction, foraging, navigation, etc.). This phenomenon, termed auditory masking, has been well studied in humans and terrestrial vertebrates (in particular birds), but less so in marine mammals. Anthropogenic underwater noise seems to be increasing in parts of the world's oceans and concerns about associated bioacoustic effects, including masking, are growing. In this article, we review our understanding of masking in marine mammals, summarise data on marine mammal hearing as they relate to masking (including audiograms, critical ratios, critical bandwidths, and auditory integration times), discuss masking release processes of receivers (including comodulation masking release and spatial release from masking) and anti-masking strategies of signalers (e.g. Lombard effect), and set a research framework for improved assessment of potential masking in marine mammals.

The habitat of the resident bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) of the Cres-Lošinj archipelago overlaps with routes of intense boat traffic. Within these waters, Sea Ambient Noise (SAN) was sampled across ten acoustic stations between 2007 and 2009. Data on boat presence was concurrently collected and when dolphins were sighted group behaviour was also recorded.Acoustic recordings were analysed for 1/3 octave bands. Samples containing dolphin whistles were analysed and compared with boat presence and SAN levels. Results indicate that dolphins whistle at higher frequencies in conditions of elevated low frequency noise. Conversely, they reduce maximum, delta and start frequencies and frequency modulations when noise levels increase significantly across higher frequencies. The study shows that high levels of SAN causes significant changes in the acoustic structure of dolphin whistles. Additionally, changes in whistle parameters, in the presence of boats, appear to be related to the behavioural state of the dolphin group.