Soundbites is a weekly (biweekly, occasionally) feature of the coolest, newest bioacoustics, soundscape, and acoustic research, in bite-size form. Plus other cool stuff having to do with sound.
Proximity to wind turbines reduces brood parasitism: this is fascinating. These researchers looked at nest success in relation to proximity to wind turbines, and only found a difference for one species, the blue gnat-catcher. It turns out that nests closer to wind turbines had less of a chance of being parasitized by brown cowbirds. This presents an interesting dichotomy between managing for wind turbines and managing brood parasitism.
Invertebrates may also be impacted by anthropogenic noise: we at ORCAA work entirely on vertebrates, but these authors make an excellent point that invertebrate species have the ability to hear anthropogenic noise. As they are a huge part of food webs in all ecosystems, neglecting to study their response to noise is neglecting a huge part of the systems we study.
Fun link of the week: the loudest sound in recorded human history was heard 3000 miles away. 3000 miles. That is one loud volcano.
Danielle! Have you seen any more info on the fun link of the week about where the loudest sound info comes from? The blog post is great but their description of decibels makes me question some of their facts about the loudness. Would love to see more!
Dave! You’re right to check me on my sources. A couple of quick googles gave me some great resources, including one from OSU: Historical Eruption Sounds. However, this one from Nautil.us is probably even better, as it lists primary sources at the bottom. I would imagine the dB level comes from a rough estimate of when the sound was heard 3000 miles away versus when the volcano actually exploded. I find the description of the air pressure levels changing really interesting here.
I hope this helps!