2015 AAAS Annual Meeting (12-16 February 2015)

February 12 - 16, 2015

Human-Made Noise and Nighttime Lighting

Artificial night lighting and loud, human-made sounds are increasingly prominent features in urban and rural areas across the globe. Because sensory systems are the primary means by which organisms interact with their environment, these evolutionarily novel stimuli have the potential to drastically alter the biology and ecology of diverse taxa, including humans. New evidence suggests that these sensory stimuli represent strong forces influencing human well-being and the behavior and distributions of animals. This symposium provides an appraisal of knowledge to date and discusses new insights resulting from innovative approaches to studying noise and night lighting as global change. Specifically, speakers will present new efforts to predict and map noise and night lighting at a continental scale, describe the breadth of ecological and human responses to these stimuli, and illustrate how citizen scientists can be important components to research and adaptive management. The panel will highlight the importance of the sensory environment to human and natural systems and demonstrate how research programs that integrate innovative mobile technologies, citizen scientists, and researchers from separate disciplines can reveal and produce otherwise unachievable insights and educational outcomes.