Summary 8

Marris E. Frog serenade foiled. Nature [Internet]. 2009 Aug 25 [cited 2009 Sept 17]; doi:10.1038/news.2009.856. Available from: http://www.nature.com.mutex.gmu.edu/news/2009/090825/full/news.2009.856.html

Kirsten Parris, an ecologist at the University of Melbourne, has been studying frogs in the Australian city of Melbourne. She has found that the noise of traffic is hindering the local frog populations from finding mates. The trouble is that the low frequency of the traffic noise is similar to the low frequencies of the frog mating calls. The interference can decrease the distance the call travels by 8 times. Some frogs, such as the southern brown tree frog, have increased the pitch of their calls so as to travel farther. Without some sort of intervention, many species could become extinct.
Parris suggests that noise barriers be erected to decrease noise around habitats. She also believes that changing the slope of some ponds to be more sloping and less steep may help to decrease interfering noise. Parris says that many species can adapt and avoid extinction fairly well with just a little help with decreasing noise pollution. Other scientists feel that the loss of environment is of much greater concern. They suggest that frogs cannot easily alter their pitch without changing the mass of the frogs themselves.