The sound of traffic increases stress and anxiety
People experienced less stress and anxiety while listening to nature soundscapes, but the addition of road traffic noise increased their stress and anxiety
PLOS
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Manmade sounds such vehicle traffic can mask the positive impact of nature soundscapes on people’s stress and anxiety.
view moreCredit: Georg Eiermann, Unsplash, CC0 (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
Manmade sounds such vehicle traffic can mask the positive impact of nature soundscapes on people’s stress and anxiety, according to a new study published November 27, 2024, in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Paul Lintott of the University of the West of England, U.K., and Lia Gilmour of the Bat Conservation Trust, U.K.
Existing research shows that natural sounds, like birdsong, can lower blood pressure, heart, and respiratory rates, as well as self-reported stress and anxiety. Conversely, anthropogenic soundscapes, like traffic or aircraft noise, are hypothesized to have negative effects on human health and wellbeing in a variety of ways.
In the new study, 68 student volunteers listened to three 3-minute soundscapes: a nature soundscape recorded at sunrise in West Sussex, U.K., the same soundscape combined with 20 mile per hour road traffic sounds, and the same soundscape with 40 mile per hour traffic sounds. General mood and anxiety were assessed before and after the soundscapes using self-reported scales.
The study found that listening to a natural soundscape reduced self-reported stress and anxiety levels, and also enhanced mood recovery after a stressor. However, the benefits of improved mood associated with the natural soundscape was limited when traffic sounds were included. The natural soundscape alone was associated with the lowest levels of stress and anxiety, with the highest levels reported after the soundscape that included 40 mile per hour traffic.
The authors conclude that reducing traffic speed in urban areas might influence human health and wellbeing not only through its safety impacts, but also through its effect on natural soundscapes.
The authors add: “Our study shows that listening to natural soundscapes can reduce stress and anxiety, and that anthropogenic sounds such as traffic noise can mask potential positive impacts. Reducing traffic speeds in cities is therefore an important step towards more people experiencing the positive effects of nature on their health and wellbeing.”
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In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS ONE: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0311487
Citation: Gilmour LRV, Bray I, Alford C, Lintott PR (2024) Natural soundscapes enhance mood recovery amid anthropogenic noise pollution. PLoS ONE 19(11): e0311487. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0311487
Author Countries: U.K., Australia
Funding: The author(s) received no specific funding for this work.
Journal
PLOS ONE
Method of Research
Survey
Subject of Research
Not applicable
Article Title
Natural soundscapes enhance mood recovery amid anthropogenic noise pollution
Article Publication Date
27-Nov-2024
Study finds opposing effects of short-term and continuous noise on western bluebird parental care
Research highlights potential long-term implications of human noise pollution on bird populations
PeerJ
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Western Bluebird Parental Care
view moreCredit: Image: Dr. Clinton Francis
Recent research led by Kerstin Ozkan and published in PeerJ Life and Environment has uncovered the complex and contrasting effects of human-generated noise on Western Bluebird (Sialia mexicana) parental behavior, raising critical questions about how anthropogenic noise affects wildlife in both urban and non-urban settings. The study, titled “Divergent effects of short-term and continuous anthropogenic noise exposure on Western Bluebird parental care behavior,” explores how different types of noise exposure alter the bird's care for their offspring, with significant implications for understanding wildlife resilience to noise pollution.
The research addresses a growing concern: as human activities expand, natural soundscapes are increasingly disrupted by urban noise, traffic, and other anthropogenic sounds. These noises can interfere with vital communication between parent birds and their offspring, mask important cues that signal threats, and shift the balance between vigilance and parental care.
Ozkan and her team conducted two studies focused on nestling provisioning behavior in Western Bluebirds under short-term and continuous noise conditions. In a controlled, short-term experiment, bluebird nests were exposed to one-hour traffic noise playbacks and compared with silent conditions. The results showed that noise reduced provisioning rates: parents were more likely to hesitate or fail to provide food during noise trials than during silent playbacks. Interestingly, after the first noise exposure, birds provisioning in a second silent playback trial showed a notable increase in feeding rates, but no such recovery was seen when the second trial involved noise.
In contrast, a study along a continuous noise gradient revealed that bluebirds exposed to prolonged noise showed the reverse[CF1] : provisioning rates actually increased with noise amplitude. Additionally, birds returned to feeding more quickly after human disturbances as noise levels rose. These contrasting findings highlight an important biological distinction: while short-term noise disrupts parental care, continuous noise exposure appears to foster some adaptive behavior, possibly due to habituation or changes in perceptions of threats or underlying hormonal changes due to continuous noise exposure.
“Our findings reveal that noise can significantly alter parental care behavior, but these effects vary dramatically depending on whether the exposure is brief or sustained,” explained Dr. Clinton Francis of California Polytechnic State University, who supervised the research. “This divergent response is an important aspect of how wildlife might adjust to human-altered environments in the short and long term. It also suggests we need to approach conservation and wildlife studies involving noise pollution with a nuanced view.”
The study calls for further research to examine how short-term noise experiments, often used to predict the impact of noise pollution on wildlife, might not fully capture the complexities of living in continuously noisy environments. Additionally, factors such as population variation, noise characteristics, environmental context, and nestling age may influence birds' responses to noise, suggesting that a one-size-fits-all approach to noise impact assessment may not be adequate.
As urban expansion and human activities continue to modify natural environments, Dr. Francis and his team stress the importance of understanding these ecological nuances to better inform conservation strategies and help protect vulnerable wildlife populations.
Journal
PeerJ
Method of Research
Observational study
Article Title
Divergent effects of short-term and continuous anthropogenic noise exposure on Western Bluebird parental care behavior
Article Publication Date
26-Nov-2024
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