Is Noise Pollution Making Desert Bugs Disappear?
Gas compressors in New Mexico seem to mess with some arthropods’ behavior.
In the San Juan Basin of New Mexico, far from human habitation, there is a cacophony of man-made noise. The Basin is the nation’s second-largest natural gas field, and for miles in every direction, gas compressors are running more or less constantly, filling the desert with their eerie, broadband roar.
When compressors are built near where people live, the machines, which can range from the size of a pickup truck to the and behave differently in areas with loud noise, including where compressors are running. Now a team of ecologists that bugs are shaken up by compressors, too—and by high decibel levels of noise in general.
