Wildlife-Crossing Mitigation Effectiveness with Traffic Noise and Light

Details

• Creators:
  Shilling, Fraser ; Collins, Amy ; Louderback-Valenzuela, Annabelle ; Farman, Parisa ; Guarnieri, Mia ; Longcore, Travis ; Banet, Benjamin ; Knapp, Harrison
• Corporate Creators:
  University of California, Davis. Road Ecology Center ; University of Southern California
• Corporate Contributors:
  National Center for Sustainable Transportation (NCST) ; United States. Department of Transportation. Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Animal behavior
  • Highways
  • Noise
  • Traffic characteristics
  • Traffic noise
  • Wildlife
  • Wildlife crossings Animal behavior
  • Highways
  • Noise
  • Traffic characteristics
  More +
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  California;United States
• Corporate Publisher:
  National Center for Sustainable Transportation (NCST) (UTC)
• Abstract:
  Wildlife crossing structures (WCS) over or under highways have been proposed as a solution for road-related habitat fragmentation and wildlife collisions. To assure the efficacy of WCS, road-related negative impacts that could cause animals to avoid WCS, such as noise and light, need to be considered. Human-sourced noise can affect habitat occupancy, and a suite of animal behaviors such as vigilance, communication, and predation efficiency, while artificial light, especially at night, can change animal’s perception of resources, foraging, mate selection, and navigation. Furthermore, the impact of noise and light varies among wildlife species, leading to differential responses within wildlife communities. To test whether traffic noise impacts species’ use of WCS, we quantified overnight (afternoon to early morning) road traffic noise, measured as dB(A), at 20 WCS positioned along four central California highways (I-5, I-80, 680 and 280), as well as historical WCS mammal use for 20 recorded days during the summer of 2012, 2015, and 2016.
• Format:
  PDF
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/36297/dot_36297_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 1.21 MB]
• Collection(s):
  University Transportation Centers ; US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:92aa7a7cb5fd51e226323a14a59bad66f1093f3fc9f1065bedef9bd219740dea88e5856873099f468d3a655acad9a95236f0f9fcb3930e38d7c64759bfcdfc14