DOI: 10.5061/dryad.rjdfn2zn9
title: Growing up with chronic traffic noise exposure leads to transient but not long-term noise tolerance in a songbird

description: Noise pollution is on the rise worldwide. An unresolved issue regarding
 the mitigation of noise pollution is whether and at which time scales,
 animals may adapt to noise pollution. Here, we tested whether continuous
 highway noise exposure perinatally and during juvenile development
 increased noise tolerance in a songbird, the zebra finch (Taeniopygia
 castanotis). Breeding pairs were exposed to highway noise recordings from
 pre-egg laying until their offspring reached subadulthood. Subsequently,
 offspring were tested for noise tolerance both as subadults and adults in
 a spatial preference test, where birds could choose to enter aviaries with
 different levels of highway noise. Unlike control birds that
 preferentially chose the quiet aviaries, noise-reared birds exhibited no
 spatial preferences for quiet in the first test. However, when the
 experimental birds were retested after two months without noise exposure,
 they now avoided the previously tolerated noise levels and preferred the
 quieter aviary. The increased noise tolerance observed directly after the
 release from the noise treatment was thus only transient. Growing up with
 chronic highway noise exposure did thus not increase subjects’ noise
 tolerance, meaning that at least in this songbird species, adaptation to
 noise pollution is unlikely to arise on a developmental time scale.
description: The data was collected by screening recordings of tests in our
 experiment to calculate cumulative time spent of zebra finches in each
 aviary.
description: # Growing up with chronic traffic noise exposure leads to transient but
 not long-term noise tolerance in a songbird
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.rjdfn2zn9](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.rjdfn2zn9) ## Description of the data and file structure Zebra finch pairs bred twice under either moderate or high-level 24-hour continuous highway noise playback in a crossover design. Offspring from both breeding rounds were tested once at 65 days post-hatch (with an additional group of control birds reared without any noise playback) as subadults, and again at 120 days post-hatch as young adults in a spatial preference test. In this test, the birds could choose to stay in aviaries that differed only in noise levels, tested in groups of four birds. The data provides the cumulative time spent by each group in either noise condition across tested conditions (quiet vs. quiet, moderate vs. quiet, high vs. quiet, and high vs. moderate). We also include the script used in our statistical analysis, the ESM file for detailed experimental procedures, and the ARRIVAL checklist for our experiment. ### Files and variables #### File: Liu\_et\_al\_\_chronic\_traffic\_noise\_exposure\_and\_noise\_tolerance.xlsx **Description:** the raw data of cumulative time spent of tested groups. ##### Variables * Variable information can be found under the sheet: metainformation #### File: Liu\_et\_al\_\_chronic\_traffic\_noise\_exposure\_and\_noise\_tolerance\_ESM.docx **Description:** additional information for our experimental procedure. #### File: Liu et al\_ chronic traffic noise exposure and noise tolerance\_analysis.R **Description:** R script of all reported statistical analysis in the manuscript and ESM file. ## Code/software The script was used in R 3.5.2 #### File: Liu et al\_chronic traffic noise exposure and noise tolerance\_ARRIVE\_checklist.pdf **Description:** ARRIVE 2.0 checklists indicate specific sections of the manuscript that contain information relating to the experimental details important for interpetating results and replicating experiments.