Environmental sources of radio frequency noise: potential impacts on magnetoreception

Radio frequency electromagnetic noise (RF) of anthropogenic origin has been shown to disrupt magnetic orientation behavior in some animals. Two sources of natural RF might also have the potential to disturb magnetic orientation behavior under some conditions: solar RF and atmospheric RF. In this review, we outline the frequency ranges and electric/magnetic field magnitudes of RF that have been shown to disturb magnetoreceptive behavior in laboratory studies and compare these to the ranges of solar and atmospheric RF. Frequencies shown to be disruptive in laboratory studies range from 0.1 to 10 MHz, with magnetic magnitudes as low as 1 nT reported to have effects. Based on these values, it appears unlikely that solar RF alone routinely disrupts magnetic orientation. In contrast, atmospheric RF does sometimes exceed the levels known to disrupt magnetic orientation in laboratory studies. We provide a reference for when and where atmospheric RF can be expected to reach these levels, as well as a guide for quantifying RF measurements.