What is the taste of honey from bees collecting pollen durin a war? Do snakes feel stress? A new study shows that war impacts the least expected creatures

Animals too feel the effects from the stress of war, finds a new study conducted at Tel Aviv University’s School of Zoology. Researchers reveal that the Israel-Hamas war has had a severe impact on animals.

The study, which focused on geckos, found that the sound of explosions from fired rockets induces stress and anxiety in these creatures, leading to a sharp increase in their metabolic rates — an energy cost that, if chronic, may be life-threatening. The researchers hypothesize that these stress responses characterize many other animals, especially those who live in the conflict zones in northern and southern Israel.

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Shahar Dubiner, one of the researchers said: “Our research was conducted in a laboratory at Tel Aviv University and pertained to the reverberations of explosions from interceptions in the Tel Aviv area. However, given the unequivocal results showing symptoms of stress, we can infer that animals that are in the immediate conflict zones in the south and north of the country, where the intensity and frequency of fire are much higher, suffer from significantly more severe stress and anxiety symptoms that may endanger their lives.”

The study was led by Shahar Dubiner, Prof. Shai Meiri and Prof. Eran Levin — in collaboration with Reut Vardi of the University of Oxford. The study was published in the journal Ecology.

The sounds of war are a sort of sound pollution which probably also affect marine life like whales, coral, dolphins and baby oysters.

“The most tragic aspect of war is the loss of human life, among both soldiers and civilians. However, animals are also severely affected, both directly and indirectly, in ways that may threaten their survival. A few weeks before October 7, we began working on a long-term study to measure the rate of energy consumption of small ground geckos of the species Stenodactylus sthenodactylus.

“We obviously did not foresee the outbreak of the war, but unintentionally, we recorded the energy consumption of five geckos during the rocket barrages launched into Tel Aviv in the first month of the war,” says Prof. Shai Meiri. Recently, Meiri published a study on rain and biodiversity.

The study’s findings showed that at the sound of the bombings, the geckos’ metabolic rate jumped to double what it was when they were at rest. Their breathing became faster, and they clearly exhibited signs of stress.

The experiment lasted up to four hours after the barrages, yet even within this timeframe the geckos did not calm down and return to their resting levels. Moreover, even after a month of continuous fighting, the geckos did not acclimate to the sound of the explosions — their stress response remained unchanged.

Prof. Levin notes that “A state of stress is detrimental to both humans and animals. To compensate for the increase in oxygen consumption and depletion of energy reserves, animals need to eat more. Even if they manage to find food, in the process they expose themselves to predators and lose opportunities to reproduce.

“In a situation of ongoing conflict, such as the current reality in Gaza, the Gaza Envelope, and along the Israeli-Lebanese border, the metabolic cost can be significant and have a real impact on the energy reserves and activity periods of reptiles and other animals. This can exacerbate their conservation status, especially for species that are already endangered.”

The researchers note that the findings of this study are consistent with another experiment conducted during Operation Guardian of the Walls, in which they also observed a stress response in a small snake of the species Xerotyphlops syriacus.

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The world is becoming too bright for bats. Baby oysters, too, are finding that sounds from us humans are causing them stress and is preventing them from moving away from “home” to settle into new environments, finds a new study. Noise pollution in seas may also be responsible in part to the proliferation of the oyster parasite multinucleate sphere X, or MSX, rendering oysters weak.

According to scientists at the University of Adelaide, oysters need specific sound cues to migrate and move around. Though they don’t swim, baby oysters do need to find the right habitat and ecosystem for them to live inside:

“The ocean’s natural sound is gradually hushing due to habitat loss, leading to a quieter natural environment increasingly drowned out by the crescendo of man-made noise pollution,” explained lead author Brittany Williams.

“Numerous marine larvae rely on natural sounds to navigate and select their dwellings, so this interference poses a problem for conservationists aiming to attract oysters to restored reefs using natural sounds.”

We know that shipping noises after whales and dolphins but marine noise pollution affects the less known creatures, some which are keystone species: “Noises from shipping, machinery and construction, for example, are pervasive and pose serious environmental change that affects both terrestrial and marine animals,” says Williams.

According to the research, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, marine organisms appear particularly vulnerable to the intensification of human-made or anthropogenic noise because they use sound for a range of activities, including to sense their surroundings, navigate, communicate, avoid predators, and find mates and food.

The teams have used a special kind of habitat “speaker” to help the oysters: But, “Our previous work demonstrated that novel acoustic technology can bolster oyster recruitment in habitat restoration projects, but this new research indicates potential limitations of this speaker technology,” said Dominic McAfee, who was part of the research team.

In environments where there is a lot of human noise pollution, the speakers did not increase larval recruitment.

Scientists all over the world have been playing specific seascape sounds using a loudspeaker to attract baby oysters. In the big scheme of things if the oysters are being attracted to harvesting islands where they are culled we can assume that natural selection will eventually wipe out the oysters who come for the call.

Oyster reef restorations are taking place in countries like America. This image shows surviving oyster reefs in Virginia. Aileen Devlin/Flickr, CC BY

“This suggests that noise pollution might cloak the intrinsic sounds of the ocean, potentially exerting profound ramifications on marine ecosystem vitality and resilience,” said co-author Professor Sean Connell, from the University of Adelaide and the Environment Institute.

While acoustic enrichment may be less effective along noisy metropolitan coastlines and urbanised waterways, the researchers are still optimistic about the application of the technique in less trafficked areas.

Another option: stop eating too much shellfish, and let the ocean dwellers take their own course.

The post The ocean is too loud for baby oysters appeared first on Green Prophet.

Should Israel be more lenient than Europe in the amount of noise that can emanate from a mosque call to prayer? These are the questions that Israeli government officials are asking recently, with some ministers looking to back a ban on mosque call to prayers. Muslims broadcast in a singing prayer, over a loudspeaker, when the faithful should start praying. The call is made five times daily, and when competing mosques pump up the volume the noise can be quite cacophonous!

I love the sound of the call to prayer five times daily, especially the one before daybreak and the one at dusk. But in some cities – I remember being rattled out of bed in a hostel in Istanbul by the call to prayer which was a bit unsettling – the question of religious freedom over the rights of others is coming into question.

Not all people believe that religious reason is enough to keep the loudspeakers on. Even beautiful sounds can become torture for people over time, especially when heard in the middle of slumber, or played at the time when baby is falling asleep.

In recent years, noise pollution has been studied on urban environments as a kind of pollution that can cause tension and stress, affecting the well-being of people. I remember loving to see signs in New York streets where honking was prohibited.

Car noise, bus engines, loud sound systems, truck brakes, screaming neighbors, barking dogs – and of course industrial noise is all a form of pollution. It not only harms people, noise pollution affects the marine environment as well.

In mixed neighborhoods and communities in Israel there is still an ongoing debate about the level of noise that should be able to come from mosque call to prayers. Unlike church bells that ring on Sundays only, usually, the Muslim call to prayer happens when most people are asleep.

Have your say. Sound pollution or a spiritual right? Should mosques be allowed to broadcast their call to prayer in any community?

::Haaretz

Image via jemmasmith

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