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Saint-Hilaire CP41, 75005 Paris, France Full list of author information is available at the end of the article Sordello et al. Environ Evid (2019) 8:8 Page 2 of 7 (industrial, commercial, etc.) [39]. In fact, anthropogenic noise is omnipresent and ranges beyond cities. All human activities generate noise, even far from cities (e.g. motor boats on lakes, aircraft in the sky, etc.) and those sounds can reach wild, uninhabited places [16]. Many studies have shown that such sounds may have considerable impact on animals. However, sound is not a problem in itself. A majority of species use, hear and emit sounds (e.g. Romer and Bailey 1990 [32]). Sounds are often used to communicate between partners or conspecifcs, or to detect prey or predators. Te problem arises when sounds turn into “noise”, i.e. a disturbance or even a form of pollution. In this case, man-made sounds can mask and inhibit animal sounds and/or animal audition and it has been shown to afect communication [37], use of space [10] or reproduction [3]. Tis problem afects many biological groups such as birds [19], amphibians [9], reptiles [22], fsh [1], mammals [34, 35] and invertebrates [6]. It spans several types of ecosystems including terrestrial [18], aquatic [17] and coastal ecosystems [33]. Many types of sounds produced by human activities would seem to be a form of noise pollution afecting biodiversity, including trafc [20], ships [38], aircraft [4] and industrial activities [23]. Noise pollution can also act in synergy with other disturbances, for example light pollution [26]. For decades, noise regulations have focused on human disorders but recently, public policies in biodiversity conservation have started to pay more attention to noise pollution. In 1996, for the frst time, the European Commission’s Green Paper on Future Noise Control Policy dealt with noise pollution from the point of view of environmental protection. Today in Europe, quiet areas are recommended to guarantee the tranquility of fauna [12]. Since 2000 in France, an article in “Code de l’environnement” (art. L571-1) has contained the terms “harms the environment” with respect to disturbances due to noise. To further mitigate the efects of noise pollution on biodiversity, the French Ecology Ministry wants to obtain more information on the impacts of noise on biodiversity in order to initiate policies focused on species which are known to be highly exposed. Te Ministry is also interested in the types of impacts that have been efectively demonstrated and in the types of noise that have been proven to afect wildlife. We proposed to produce a systematic map of the literature dealing with this issue to provide the Ministry with a report on current knowledge and to identify sectors (sources, types of impact, etc.) where research is needed to fll in knowledge gaps. A preliminary search did not identify any existing systematic maps or reviews, however a few reviews of the literature have been published. Most of them concern only one biological group, such as Morley et al. [25] on invertebrates, Patricelli and Blickley [27]  on birds and Popper and Hastings [28] on fsh. A synthesis published by Shannon et al. in 2016 [34] is more general and comes closer to a systematic map, but the search strategy would seem to be incomplete. Te literature search was performed on only one database (ISI Web of Science within selected subject areas) and the review did not include grey literature. Finally, a meta-analysis was performed by Roca et al. [31], but it dealt exclusively with birds and amphibians and the authors were interested in only one efect (vocalization adjustment). Tis report describes the protocol used to develop a systematic map of noise pollution and biodiversity. Te systematic map will provide further information on the knowledge currently available on this issue. It will include all the relevant studies (with grey literature) collected after three screening stages. An open-access database will be produced, containing metadata for each study on key variables of interest (species, types of sound, efects, etc.). Tis database will be available in conjunction with a map report describing the mapping process and the evidence base. It will include aggregate data and tables of the study characteristics to highlight any gaps in the research evidence concerning the issue. Objective of the map Te objective of the systematic map is to assess the biological and ecological impacts of noise pollution. Noise pollution is considered here as anthropogenic noise. It does not include noise made by other animals (e.g. chorus frogs) or natural events (e.g. thunder, waterfalls). Te systematic map will address all man-made noise whatever its origin (road trafc, industrial machines, boats, planes, etc.), its environment or media (terrestrial, aquatic, aerial) or its type (infrasound, ultrasound, white noise, etc.). Te goal is to provide a comprehensive image of the available knowledge on this topic and to quantify the literature by taxonomic groups, types of impacts and even types of studies. For this reason, the systematic map will cover all species. It will deal with all kinds of impacts, from biological to ecological (use of space, reproduction, communication, abundance, etc.). It will encompass in situ studies as well as ex situ studies (aquariums, laboratories, cages, etc.). Te primary question is: what is the evidence that manmade noise impacts biodiversity? Te 

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