RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 The sounds of plants – Plants emit remotely-detectable ultrasounds that can reveal plant stress
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 507590
DO 10.1101/507590
A1 I. Khait
A1 R. Sharon
A1 R. Perelman
A1 A. Boonman
A1 Y. Yovel
A1 L. Hadany
YR 2018
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/12/28/507590.abstract
AB Plants communicate with their environment in many ways, using colors and shapes and secreting chemicals. Yet, the possibility that plants emit airborne sounds that reveal their condition has not been investigated. Here, we develop a novel method for remotely detecting plant sound emission. We use it to demonstrate, to our knowledge for the first time, that plants emit sounds that can be recorded from a distance. We recorded ∼65 dBSPL ultrasonic sounds at 10 cm distance from tomato and tobacco plants, suggesting that these sounds could be detected by many animals from up to several meters. We further train machine learning algorithms to identify the physiological condition of tomato and tobacco plants based solely on the emitted sounds. We successfully classified the plant’s condition – dry, cut, or intact – based on its emitted sounds. Our results suggest that animals, and possibly even other plants, could use sounds emitted by plants to gain information about the plant’s condition. 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.