For two summers in a rugged corner of Idaho’s Pioneer Mountains, the roar of rushing white water filled the air. But where the loud sounds prevailed, only gentle streams flowed by.
These phantom rivers were part of an experiment led by ecologist Dylan Gomes of Boise State University. He and colleagues were testing a hypothesis that the sounds of nature influence where animals lived and how they forage.
“There’s a lot of research suggesting that [human] noise negatively affects [animals], from communication to foraging to reproduction, and even survival,” Gomes says.
But the natural soundscape is “one component of the niche that we’ve been ignoring,” says Gail Patricelli, an ecologist at the University of California, Davis who was not involved in the study. The phantom rivers experiment suggests we shouldn’t, she says.
Gomes and his team hauled about 3.5 metric tons of speakers, solar panels and other equipment into the countryside. Though they carried most of this gear on their backs, the researchers had to call on a mule train when an access road flooded during the first summer. At 60 study sites near streams, the researchers broadcast white water noise at different volumes and frequencies, or pitches, creating the auditory illusion of rushing rivers.
These phantom rivers were part of an experiment led by ecologist Dylan Gomes of Boise State University. He and colleagues were testing a hypothesis that the sounds of nature influence where animals lived and how they forage.
“There’s a lot of research suggesting that [human] noise negatively affects [animals], from communication to foraging to reproduction, and even survival,” Gomes says.
But the natural soundscape is “one component of the niche that we’ve been ignoring,” says Gail Patricelli, an ecologist at the University of California, Davis who was not involved in the study. The phantom rivers experiment suggests we shouldn’t, she says.
Gomes and his team hauled about 3.5 metric tons of speakers, solar panels and other equipment into the countryside. Though they carried most of this gear on their backs, the researchers had to call on a mule train when an access road flooded during the first summer. At 60 study sites near streams, the researchers broadcast white water noise at different volumes and frequencies, or pitches, creating the auditory illusion of rushing rivers.
