Plants can cry and some animals can hear it
The sound of tomato and tobacco plants echoed by human and machine-learning in a soundproofed acoustic chamber
Humans haven’t been able to hear those sounds coming from tomato and tobacco plants because they’re at a frequency too high for us to detect. That is until researchers at Tel Aviv University set up microphones to listen to the plants in a greenhouse and in a soundproofed acoustic chamber. They heard healthy plants, dehydrated plants and plants after their stems were cut.
The team produced a machine-learning model to deduce whether a plant had been cut or was water stressed from the sounds it made, with about 70% accuracy. This result suggests a possible role for the audio monitoring of plants in farming and horticulture.
Mice and moths are able to hear the high pitch of the tomato sound, for example. Since some of the tomato plants have insects on them, they can listen in to which plant gives the best odds of survival. Other kinds of plants have also been found to react to sound and might start to prepare themselves for drought, for instance.
He’s sceptical that animals listen to the moans of stressed plants. It’s unlikely that the animals are able to hear the sound so far away. He thinks the sounds would be too faint. More research should be conducted on the matter. Pyke admits that he’s willing to accept plants when stressed.
There are sounds in a quiet field that carry information but we do not hear, says the senior author of the paper.
Tomato and tobacco plants in particular make clicking sounds when they’re dehydrated or being cut, according to the paper Hadany and her colleagues published in the journal Cell yesterday.
The plant sounds researchers shared online can be heard in a recording. Humans can hear it, so they lowered the frequencies. The recording feels like Bubble Wrap popping.
Farmers could put in listening sensors to see if their fields are healthy or need more attention. Since farmers could potentially hear if the plants are running out of water, it could help them water crops more efficiently.
