EOC 037: Phantom Road Part Two – The Invisible Source of Habitat Degradation

Episode Summary:

On today’s show we’re bringing noise pollution researchers Jesse Barber and Heidi Ware back into the studio to talk about their newly published scientific paper.  This is the second paper to come out of their research on the impacts of road noise on migrating songbird populations – dubbed the “Phantom Road” research because they had to replicate the noises of a busy road in the middle of a pristine forest.

Just like the first part of our conversation with Heidi and Jesse (which we released as episode 32 of the podcast), this interview was produced in collaboration with the radio show Building a Greener Idaho, and will air on Radio Boise in the coming weeks.  This episode is also special because we have another short video documenting this component of the Phantom Road research, which you can watch right here in this post (see below!).

This new research paper was published on Monday of this week, and it documents a decrease in body condition for many of the songbird species that chose to stay in the affected area.  This means that even those birds that remained in the road noise-impacted area may have experienced a negative impact.  The idea is that these birds, which under normal conditions would be listening for predators while they forage for seeds or insects, have to spend more time looking for predators when in an area affected by road noise.  This means that they aren’t able to forage as effectively, and they don’t build up the fat stores needed to continue their migration.

Heidi and Jesse have a few suggestions for folks looking to minimize the impact that they’re having on songbirds, the most simple of which is to drive as a slower speed when traveling through a remote area with high bird abundance.  Check out the website for Jesse Barber’s lab at Boise State University for more information on this research as well as other projects that Jesse is involved with.

 

The Invisible Source of Habitat Degradation:

Links:

The new research paper:  A phantom road experiment reveals traffic noise is an invisible source of habitat degradation

Jesse Barber’s lab at Boise State University

The Intermountain Bird Observatory

 

Listen to the podcast episode here: