Pollution going multimodal: the complex impact of the human-altered sensory environment on animal perception and performance

dc.contributor.authorHalfwerk, Wouter H.
dc.contributor.authorSlabbekoorn, Hans
dc.date.accessioned2015-05-15T12:50:30Z
dc.date.available2015-05-15T12:50:30Z
dc.date.issued2015
dc.description.abstractAnthropogenic sensory pollution is affecting ecosystems worldwide. Human actions generate acoustic noise, emanate artificial light and emit chemical substances. All of these pollutants are known to affect animals. Most studies on anthropogenic pollution address the impact of pollutants in unimodal sensory domains. High levels of anthropogenic noise, for example, have been shown to interfere with acoustic signals and cues. However, animals rely on multiple senses, and pollutants often co-occur. Thus, a full ecological assessment of the impact of anthropogenic activities requires a multimodal approach. We describe how sensory pollutants can co-occur and how covariance among pollutants may differ from natural situations. We review how animals combine information that arrives at their sensory systems through different modalities and outline how sensory conditions can interfere with multimodal perception. Finally, we describe how sensory pollutants can affect the perception, behaviour and endocrinology of animals within and across sensory modalities. We conclude that sensory pollution can affect animals in complex ways due to interactions among sensory stimuli, neural processing and behavioural and endocrinal feedback. We call for more empirical data on covariance among sensory conditions, for instance, data on correlated levels in noise and light pollution. Furthermore, we encourage researchers to test animal responses to a full-factorial set of sensory pollutants in the presence or the absence of ecologically important signals and cues. We realize that such approach is often time and energy consuming, but we think this is the only way to fully understand the multimodal impact of sensory pollution on animal performance and perception.
dc.identifier1744-9561
dc.identifier.citationHalfwerk, Wouter H. and Slabbekoorn, Hans. 2015. "<a href="http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/11/4/20141051">Pollution going multimodal: the complex impact of the human-altered sensory environment on animal perception and performance</a>." <em>Biology Letters</em>, 11, (4). <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2014.1051">https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2014.1051</a>.
dc.identifier.issn1744-9561
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10088/26217
dc.identifier.urihttp://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/11/4/20141051
dc.publisherThe Royal Society
dc.relation.ispartofBiology Letters 11 (4)
dc.titlePollution going multimodal: the complex impact of the human-altered sensory environment on animal perception and performance
dc.typearticle
sro.description.unitSTRI
sro.description.unitPost-doc
sro.identifier.doi10.1098/rsbl.2014.1051
sro.identifier.itemID135860
sro.identifier.refworksID21601
sro.identifier.urlhttp://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/11/4/20141051
sro.publicationPlaceLondon

Files

Collections