The Pinon pine could suffer from high levels of artificial noise.

Noise from cars, machines and other forms of human activity could affect the growth of wild flowers, trees and animals nearby, say scientists.

Such noise may be harmful to some plants because of the longterm impact it has on animals that pollinate flowers and disperse seeds. Scientists made the findings in tests near the noisy gas wells of New Mexico, which have compressors running 24 hours a day, The Independent reported on Wednesday.

The study, probed the noise preferences of different animals that feed on the seeds of the pinon pine tree. It found that certain species , such as western scrub jays, tended to avoid noise, while other seed-eaters , like mice, appeared to prefer foraging in noisy areas.

This difference in noise tolerance would affect the likely germination of seeds because the instinct of jays is to hide many of the seeds, the newspaper quoted Clinton Francis, lead researcher as saying.

Via Times of India