Anthropogenic noise is present throughout the ocean and on land .
This creates a problem for animals that use sounds to conduct a variety of biologically important tasks . And, although they may adapt to living with certain urban characteristics studies have shown that prominent ambient
noise can mask acoustic signals change population distributions increase vigilance and create
physiological stress Indeed,anthropogenic sounds have been shown to even affect avian community structure and the nature of interspecific interactions Despite rare adaptations to extraneous noise, such as modifying call structure to avoid acoustic masking anthropogenic noise generally causes deleterious consequences.
For example, beaked whale strandings may be a direct result of extremely loud anthropogenic sounds A deeper knowledge of the ways
animals respond to anthropogenic sounds may help us
understand, and hence manage, our impacts, or, if desired,
use anthropogenic sounds to interfere with “problem” animals.