Sometimes noise is beneficial: stream noise informs vocal communication in the little torrent frog Amolops torrentis.

ABSTRACT: Many kinds of environmental noise can interfere with acoustic communication and efficient decision making in terrestrial species. Here we identified an exception to this generalization in a streamside species, the little torrent frog (Amolops torrentis) which communicates in a stream noise environment. To determine whether stream noise can act as a cue regarding the microhabitat characteristics of senders, we performed phonotaxis experiments using stimulus pairs constructed with synthetic male calls (high or low dominant frequency) and stream noise with varied signal-to-noise ratios. We found that females prefer calls with high amplitude stream noise added compared to those with low amplitude stream noise added for both high and low dominant frequency stimulus pairs; however, stream

SUBMITTER: Zhao L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5711985 | biostudies-literature | 2017

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature