Natural History Wanderings

The New York Times reported on a study showing the impact of noise on forest habitats. Recent findings and earlier studies  discovered:

• areas with human noise pollution saw  more black-chinned hummingbirds and less jays
• hummingbirds, who pollinated flowers seek noisy areas to avoid jays who eat their eggs and nestlings
• areas with human noise pollution had more flowers and less trees
• pinyon pines, which  depend on jays  to disperse their seeds, decrease in number
• pinyon pine seeds supplies are depleted due to a lack of jays  and larger seed-eating mouse populations in noisy areas
• 1000 species of fungi, insects, arthropods, mammals and birds depend on pinyon pines

Read full story at: a Noise Pollution Is Changing Forests – NYTimes.com.