Trees too cry when hurt, stressed, claims Israeli study that recorded plant sounds
TCN Service/Tel Aviv
Trees too cry when injured (cutting of branches) or stressed (due to dehydration), claims a new study conducted by Tel Aviv University that recorded ultrasonic airborne sounds emitted by plants.
Lilach Hadani alongwith her colleagues at Tel Aviv University studied Tobacco and Tomato plants in greenhouse conditions by placing microphones in the boxes containing these.
“Stressed plants show altered phenotypes, including changes in color, smell, and shape.
Stressed plants emit airborne sounds that can be recorded from a distance and classified.
We recorded ultrasonic sounds emitted by tomato and tobacco plants inside an acoustic chamber, and in a greenhouse, while monitoring the plant’s physiological parameters.
We developed machine learning models that succeeded in identifying the condition of the plants, including dehydration level and injury, based solely on the emitted sounds.
These informative sounds may also be detectable by other organisms. This work opens avenues for understanding plants and their interactions with the environment and may have a significant impact on agriculture,” Hadany claimed in the study.
The study titled ‘Sounds emitted by stressed plants are airborne and informative’ has been published in the Cell journal.
The study further asserts that plants emit ultrasonic airborne sounds in 20 to 165 kilohertz frequency which couldn’t be heard by humans.
Humans can only hear frequencies up to 16 kilohertz but many other organisms can hear these sounds.
While the healthy plants emitted only one sound per hour, the injured or dehydrated plants produced dozens of sounds in an hour.
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