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Leafcutter ants adjust foraging behaviours when exposed to noise disturbance
We investigate the impact of anthropogenic noise on the foraging efficiency of leafcutter ants (Acromyrmex octospinosus) in a controlled laboratory experiment. Anthropogenic noise is a widespread, pervasive and increasing environmental pollutant and its negative impacts on animal fitness and behavio...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9176835/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35675369 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269517 |
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author | Byrne, Briony de Kort, Selvino R. Pedley, Scott M. |
author_facet | Byrne, Briony de Kort, Selvino R. Pedley, Scott M. |
author_sort | Byrne, Briony |
collection | PubMed |
description | We investigate the impact of anthropogenic noise on the foraging efficiency of leafcutter ants (Acromyrmex octospinosus) in a controlled laboratory experiment. Anthropogenic noise is a widespread, pervasive and increasing environmental pollutant and its negative impacts on animal fitness and behaviour have been well documented. Much of this evidence has come from studies concerning vertebrate species with very little evidence for terrestrial invertebrates, especially social living invertebrates. We compare movement speed, forage fragment size, and colony activity levels of ants exposed to intermittent elevated noise and in ambient noise conditions. We use intermittent and temporally unpredictable bursts of white noise produced from a vibration speaker to create the elevated noise profile. Ant movement speed increased under elevated noise conditions when travelling to collect forage material and when returning to the colony nest. The size of individually measured foraged material was significantly reduced under elevated noise conditions. Colony activity, the number of ants moving along the forage route, was not affected by elevated noise and was consistent throughout the foraging events. Increased foraging speed and smaller forage fragments suggests that the ants had to make more foraging trips over an extended period, which is likely to affect energy expenditure and increases exposure to predators. This is likely to have significant fitness impacts for the colony over time. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9176835 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-91768352022-06-09 Leafcutter ants adjust foraging behaviours when exposed to noise disturbance Byrne, Briony de Kort, Selvino R. Pedley, Scott M. PLoS One Research Article We investigate the impact of anthropogenic noise on the foraging efficiency of leafcutter ants (Acromyrmex octospinosus) in a controlled laboratory experiment. Anthropogenic noise is a widespread, pervasive and increasing environmental pollutant and its negative impacts on animal fitness and behaviour have been well documented. Much of this evidence has come from studies concerning vertebrate species with very little evidence for terrestrial invertebrates, especially social living invertebrates. We compare movement speed, forage fragment size, and colony activity levels of ants exposed to intermittent elevated noise and in ambient noise conditions. We use intermittent and temporally unpredictable bursts of white noise produced from a vibration speaker to create the elevated noise profile. Ant movement speed increased under elevated noise conditions when travelling to collect forage material and when returning to the colony nest. The size of individually measured foraged material was significantly reduced under elevated noise conditions. Colony activity, the number of ants moving along the forage route, was not affected by elevated noise and was consistent throughout the foraging events. Increased foraging speed and smaller forage fragments suggests that the ants had to make more foraging trips over an extended period, which is likely to affect energy expenditure and increases exposure to predators. This is likely to have significant fitness impacts for the colony over time. Public Library of Science 2022-06-08 /pmc/articles/PMC9176835/ /pubmed/35675369 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269517 Text en © 2022 Byrne et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Byrne, Briony de Kort, Selvino R. Pedley, Scott M. Leafcutter ants adjust foraging behaviours when exposed to noise disturbance |
title | Leafcutter ants adjust foraging behaviours when exposed to noise disturbance |
title_full | Leafcutter ants adjust foraging behaviours when exposed to noise disturbance |
title_fullStr | Leafcutter ants adjust foraging behaviours when exposed to noise disturbance |
title_full_unstemmed | Leafcutter ants adjust foraging behaviours when exposed to noise disturbance |
title_short | Leafcutter ants adjust foraging behaviours when exposed to noise disturbance |
title_sort | leafcutter ants adjust foraging behaviours when exposed to noise disturbance |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9176835/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35675369 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0269517 |
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