Research Report
Miriam Goosem, Conrad Hoskin and Gregory Dawe
James Cook University
ISBN 9781921359194
First released November 2007
Published November 2008
MTSRF Project 4.9.3 -
Impacts of urbanisation on North Queensland environments:
management and remediation
Extract from Executive Summary
Section 1: Nocturnal noise levels in frog habitats and
acoustic refugia adjacent to the Kuranda Range Road
This project was designed to collect nocturnal noise level data
in habitats adjacent to streams along the Kuranda Range Road,
northwest of Cairns. The research complemented a concurrent study
investigating frog population densities and vocalisations in
habitats likely to be impacted by the proposed upgrade to the
Kuranda Range Road. It quantified traffic-noise impacts in likely
anuran habitats adjacent to the existing Road by data-logging and
analysing nocturnal noise levels along streams concurrently
surveyed for frog populations.
A secondary objective was to measure noise levels in selected
acoustic refugia postulated in sections of the 2007 report entitled
Noise
Disturbance along Highways – Kuranda Range Upgrade
Project (Dawe and Goosem 2007).
Section 2: Disturbance and edge effects on frog
abundance and diversity
The objective of this section was to examine potential amphibian
avoidance of habitat adjacent to the Kuranda Range Road in
comparison with areas further into the forest, some of which have
been identified as 'acoustic refugia'.
To this end the project aimed to assess whether the Kuranda
Range Road impacts on the abundance and diversity of stream
frogs.
Five road-side stream transects were monitored six times over a
six-week period during the wet season and the data was used to
assess the abundance of several species of frog in relation to
distance to the road.
Section 3: Impacts of traffic noise on stream frog
calling behaviour near the Kuranda Range Road
The objective of this section was to assess whether the Kuranda
Range Road impacts on the calling behaviour or stream frogs.
To this end the project aimed to analyse whether frequency
shifts in amphibian calls occur at the edge of the Kuranda Range
Road in comparison to calls recorded in the forest interior.
Calls of an Endangered species, the Common Mist Frog
Litoria rheocola, were recorded along one of the survey
transects and traits of the calls were measured and analysed to see
if they varied with distance from the road.
