Plants are adversely affected by the racket of urban traffic
They get stressed and grow less well
MANY ANIMALS depend upon sound to find food, detect predators and communicate with one another. These species understandably suffer when loud motorways cut through their habitats. Some cope by singing more loudly, some change the timing of their calls to occur when fewer people are driving, others just move to quieter locales.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Deafened”
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