Free Essay Sample on Noise Pollution

The traditional definition of noise pollution is, “unwanted or excessive sound that can have deleterious effects on humans’ health, wildlife, and environmental quality,” as reported by Nathanson, Jerry (2010). This can also be described as the spread of noise that has a range of detrimental consequences on human and animal behavior, which can even be an existential threat to vulnerable organisms. Sound pollution has been a nuisance since the early 1970s and has continued to grow as a result of urbanization. Animals depend heavily on their sense of hearing, and this form of contamination has only made it more difficult for them to use their strongest attribute. Noise pollution could lead to evolutionary changes in animals whose behavior is based on emitting and understanding noises which are crucial to their survival.

Animals use sound in their daily lives for a variety of reasons, including finding food, navigation, detection of possible predators, and even finding mates. It is becoming difficult for said animals to accomplish these tasks due to environmental commotion. Specifically, whales and dolphins are affected by sounds such as sonar devices, ships, oil drills, and more. These creatures are dependent on echolocation to complete the tasks previously stated, and excess noise from humans interferes with their capability of echolocation. In addition, deer and grasshoppers are among the multiple species that advertise their desirability and dominance through vocalizations. With noise pollution affecting the majority of animals, it seems as though population health may even be dependent on the effects of this category of pollution.

Marine animals will likely experience damage to their ears and become seriously injured as a consequence of seismic surveys, which produce loud blasts of sound within the ocean. Marine animals depend on their hearing to hunt, communicate, and navigate. Sonar used by the military used to search for submarines is especially threatening, because it creates sound waves that may interfere with hearing within a radius of about 3,000 kilometers. Marine life such as whales and dolphins are consequently being found stranded. This has been observed to be specifically frequent after naval sonar maneuvers. “ Extreme sound events like these inflict vascular damage on the brain, lungs, and other organs. Further, animals may panic and surface too fast which causes nitrogen bubbles to form in the blood – the so-called bends (decompression sickness). The resulting embolism may cause death. Dead animals end up sinking to the seabed or getting beached on the coast,” in the sense of as claimed by OceanCare (n.d.). As horrible as this is, the creatures may also experience hearing damage due to extremely loud noises. Here is where complications arise, considering that much of marine wildlife rely on their hearing for a multitude of reasons. In addition, some more impact would be that shrimp growth can be impaired, as well as the disruption of the structure of schools of fish.  There have even been cell changes in lobsters detected. Stress levels may also increase, which makes animals more susceptible to sickness as a whole. Lastly, ocean noise pollution can possibly cause marine life to abandon valuable habitats due to either prey fleeing, or directly being impacted by the pollutants. Due to this, there are plenty of consequences in populations that are already generally weakened by other ecological impacts.

It appears that there has been new research exhibiting the phenomenon that turtles can experience temporary hearing loss due to an excess of intense underwater commotion, according to ScienceDaily “Effects of Noise on Marine Life” (2022). Scientists conducted experiments on two non-threatened species of freshwater turtles. A team of researchers conducted experiments on two species of non-threatened freshwater turtles in the study. To detect the tiny neurological voltages created by the turtles' auditory systems when they hear sounds, the researchers inserted a minimally invasive device just under the turtle's skin above the ear. Their hearing may be measured rapidly and noninvasively in just a few minutes, using a method remarkably similar to how hearing is measured in infants. Turtles were first exposed to low levels of white noise to determine what tones (frequencies) they could hear underwater before being exposed to loud white noise (similar to radio static). Researchers exposed turtles to noise, removed them from the noise, and measured their underwater hearing for about an hour to determine whether they had recovered their short-term underwater hearing. Two days later, they measured their hearing again to determine whether it had completely recovered. Generally, turtles would recover their hearing within a few minutes. However, hearing loss could last for up to one hour. Some subjects' hearing did not fully recover by the end of the hour, indicating they needed more time to recover. In one case, the turtle experienced reduced hearing for multiple days. 

Aran Mooney declared, “If this occurs in nature, turtles would be less able to detect sounds in their environment on these timescales, including sounds used for communication or warning them of approaching predators,” Salas said. “Over half of turtle and tortoise species are threatened, and noise pollution is an additional stressor to consider as we work towards protecting these animals,” claimed by “Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution-Led Study Explores Effects of Noise on Marine Life” (2022).

According to Shannon, Graeme (2015), “In terrestrial habitats, bird diversity and abundance has been shown to decline as a result of chronic noise around cities and roadways. A number of species have demonstrated adjustments to their vocal behaviour in an attempt to adapt to the cacophony of human noise. Urban great tits, for example, are able to raise the frequency of their calls to reduce acoustical masking by predominantly low-frequency urban noise, while European robins adjust the timing of their singing to coincide with quieter periods in the city. Meanwhile, black-chinned hummingbirds and house finches appear to actively select noisy areas near active gas wells to avoid nest predation by more disturbance sensitive species.” In accordance with research, birds subjected to the constant sounds of natural gas compressors exhibit symptoms that are strikingly similar to those seen in individuals suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. It was found that noise pollution produces several indicators of chronic stress in adults and nestlings of three species, including skewed stress hormone levels, most likely due to increased anxiety, distraction, and hypervigilance. The analysis is the first to look at the connection between loud sounds, stress hormones, and fitness in animals that breed in natural settings with continuous, man-made noise. As stated by Hoose, Natalie (2018), “Constant noise could be acting as an “acoustic blanket,” muffling the audio cues birds rely on to detect predators, competitors, and their own species, said study co-author Rob Guralnick, associate curator of biodiversity informatics at the Florida Museum of Natural History. Unable to discern whether their environment is safe, mother birds must choose between staying on guard at the nest and finding food for their young.” Nestlings in the noisiest surroundings had smaller bodies and far less feather development, which could diminish their chances of survival. Even the most noise-tolerant species investigated, western bluebirds, exhibited decreased hatching rates in response to noise. To quote Hoose, Natalie (2018) once more, “ ‘These birds can’t escape this noise. It’s persistent, and it completely screws up their ability to get cues from the environment,’ Guralnick said. ‘They’re perpetually stressed because they can’t figure out what’s going on. Just as constant stress tends to degrade many aspects of a person’s health, this ultimately has a whole cascade of effects on their physiological health and fitness.’” 

Noise pollution could lead to evolutionary changes in animals whose behavior is based on emitting and understanding noises which are crucial to their survival. There are noise-control laws that can be effective in mitigating the adverse effects of sound pollution. The overwhelming sounds can cause physical damage to the sensitive hair cells of the inner ear as well as the eardrum. This can cause permanent or temporary hearing loss, which can also be referred to as noise-induced hearing loss. For organisms that rely heavily on their sense of hearing, for example, bats, whales, or dolphins, this can be detrimental to their survival. As for other forms of wildlife that do not depend so heavily on sounds, they can still be affected in numerous ways. To add to this point, noise pollution can obstruct an animal’s ability to navigate, hunt, avoid falling prey, and even attract a mate. Noise pollution has the ability to alter the acoustic environment enough to where animals may be driven to evolutionary changes to adapt as a species or to avoid noisy environments.