Posted on 01/07/2020 12:08:38 PM PST by Red Badger
Some plants emit a high frequency distress sound when they are placed under environmental stress, a team of researchers at Tel Aviv University in Israel has found.
The team, led by Itzhak Khait, examined the sounds emitted by tomato and tobacco plants when stressed by insufficient water or when their stems are cut. Microphones recorded ultrasonic sounds between 20 and 100 kilohertz emitted by the plants in both cases, the study found.
The sounds emitted by the stressed plants are at frequencies unable to be heard by humans, however the team of scientists believes “some organisms” can hear the sounds from up to several meters away.
A tomato plant emitted 25 ultrasonic distress sounds in the space of an hour when its stem was cut, according to the study. In contrast, tobacco plants emitted 15 distress sounds when their stems were cut.
When deprived of water, the tomato plants sent out 35 ultrasonic sounds in the course of an hour, while 11 were emitted by the tobacco plants. The team observed that the sounds released when the plants were deprived of water were louder compared to the ones when having their stems cut.
In comparison, plants not placed under any environmental stress emitted less than one distress sound per hour.
The authors noted that other plants and animals—and humans with the correct tools—could hear and listen to the plants’ silent screams. A moth, for example, may choose to lay its eggs elsewhere if it is able to detect that a plant is water-stressed, according to the study, which has not yet been published in a journal.
In other cases, plants could react accordingly to others which lack water, the authors suggest.
“These findings can alter the way we think about the plant kingdom, which has been considered to be almost silent until now,” the researchers write in their study.
The Tel Aviv University team then took the data and used it to train a machine-learning model to predict the possible frequencies plants could emit while undergoing different forms of environmental stress, such as during intense rain or wind.
The team also believes other plants may release distress sounds when placed under stress.
“More investigation on plant bioacoustics in general and on sound emission in plants in particular may open new avenues for understanding plants and their interactions with the environment, and it may also have a significant impact on agriculture,” the authors suggested.
The notion that “sounds that drought-stressed plants make could be used in precision agriculture seems feasible if it is not too costly to set up the recording in a field situation,” Anne Visscher, a fellow in the Department of Comparative Plant and Fungal Biology at the Royal Botanic Gardens in the UK told New Scientist.
What does it sound like when doves cry?
You mean Democrats..........
The only thing left to eat will be dirt. But there are micro-organisms in dirt!
Hindus will be aggrieved..................
While “screams” is a human term and is an anthropomorphic projection of human “feelings” to a non-animal life form’s reaction to “stress”.
While yes, ALL LIFE wants to live, and ALL LIFE seeks to continue to live, and yes there is nothing “wrong” with the idea that other life forms, like plants, have reactions to things that “stress” their ability to live.
And, the combined molecular reaction to that stress within the life can possibly create vibrations of certain molecules in the plant which could be detected in the form of sound waves.
So, yes, plants can get “stressed” and can react to “stress”, and MAYBE such stress can POSSIBLY create molecular changes that can POSSIBLY produce sound above or below wavelengths that humans can identify. Nothing unnatural about the idea.
But supplying human or even animal emotions to it has no scientific foundation.
My late husband used to mock vegetarians by saying...don’t you hear that carrot scream when you pull it out of the ground? Then you aren’t listening!
He was absolutely correct. Even if their sounds are inaudible, you CAN pick up on plant distress if you pay attention.
The Trees
Rush
There is unrest in the forest
There is trouble with the trees
For the maples want more sunlight
And the oaks ignore their pleas
The trouble with the maples
And they’re quite convinced they’re right
They say the oaks are just too lofty
And they grab up all the light
But the oaks can’t help their feelings
If they like the way they’re made
And they wonder why the maples
Can’t be happy in their shade?
There is trouble in the forest
And the creatures all have fled
As the maples scream ‘oppression!’
And the oaks, just shake their heads
So…
The Screaming Trees...
Sorry, left off the last verse:
So the Maples formed a Union
And demanded equal rights
‘The Oaks are just too greedy
We will make them give us light’
Now there’s no more Oak oppression
For they passed a noble law
And the trees are all kept equal
By hatchet,
Axe,
And saw…
That’s going to really burst their bubble.
Maybe they just need to move on to living off light.
My lawnmower drowns it all out.
Guess the PETA-philes will just have to eat dirt now. WAIT! Even that has living organism in it! Guess they’ll just have to starve. Pity. But it’s for the earth anyway.
....three......two......one......
Dirt? Betp O’Rourke is already there!
No wonder I have been yelling at my veggies to shut up when I go to eat them. Who knew?
Read a book in the ‘70s entitled, “The Secret Life of Plants”. They hooked a plant to a galvanometer and then boiled brine shrimp across the room. They got a reading.
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