Inequalities in noise will affect urban wildlife

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  • Jasmine R. Nelson-Olivieri
    Colorado State University
  • Tamara J. Layden
    Colorado State University
  • Edder Antunez
    Colorado State University
  • Ali Khalighifar
    Colorado State University
  • Monica Lasky
    Colorado State University
  • Theresa M. Laverty
    New Mexico State University
  • Karina A. Sanchez
    University of New Hampshire
  • Graeme Shannon
  • Steven Starr
    Colorado State University
  • Anahita K. Verahrami
    Colorado State University
  • Sara P. Bombaci
    Colorado State University
Understanding how systemic biases influence local ecological communities is essential for developing just and equitable environmental practices that prioritize both human and wildlife well-being. With over 270 million residents inhabiting urban areas in the United States, the socioecological consequences of racially targeted zoning, such as redlining, need to be considered in urban planning. There is a growing body of literature documenting the relationships between redlining and the inequitable distribution of environmental harms and goods, green space cover and pollutant exposure. However, it remains unknown whether historical redlining affects the distribution of urban noise or whether inequitable noise drives an ecological change in urban environments. Here we conducted a spatial analysis of how urban noise corresponds to the distribution of redlining categories and a systematic literature review to summarize the effects of noise on wildlife in urban landscapes. We found strong evidence to indicate that noise is inequitably distributed in redlined urban communities across the United States, and that inequitable noise may drive complex biological responses across diverse urban wildlife, reinforcing the interrelatedness of socioecological outcomes. These findings lay a foundation for future research that advances relationships between acoustic and urban ecology through centring equity and challenging systems of oppression in wildlife studies.
Original languageEnglish
JournalNature Ecology and Evolution
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 20 Nov 2023

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