Plants Communicate Through Sound: Unique Study Finds Plants 'Click' When Stressed
If you don't eat meat on account of the ghastly animal screams coming from abattoirs, you might lose your bragging rights because of this research. Turns out, plants respond to stress through noises as well - just not the same way.
According to a study conducted by researchers at Tel Aviv University in Israel, plants make a high-frequency clicking sound when put under under stress. The study included plants like tomatoes, tobacco, wheat, and grapevines.
Plants make noise, after all!
When the plants were cut or thirsty, they made noises but it's unclear why. Is it pain? We don't know yet - but this research proves that plants are capable of noises too - just not the way humans understand it.
The frequency of such noises is too high for human ears, but insect and mammals could hear it, scientists say in a study published in Cell Press.?
To record these noises, researchers used microphones. According to lead author Lilach Hadany, different methods were used to cause distress to plants. "We used mostly two stresses, drying the plant and cutting it with scissors, and in both cases they emit sounds. During dehydration, if we stop watering the plant, it started emitting a sound, about day two it peaks."
Also read:?Scientists Grow Plants In The Dark, Paving Way For Growth Of Food On Mars
The sounds were recorded in a sound proofed acoustic chamber in a greenhouse environment. To differentiate between unstressed plants, thirsty plants, and cut plants, researchers trained a machine-learning algorithm to spot changes. The frequency was changed to make the noises audible to human beings. While it's unclear if pain is causing these noises, further research could reveal how plants interact with the environment.
"There are two options, the exciting direction is that it is used for communication, but there is also the option that the sounds are a byproduct of physiological processes," explained Hadany. "So we can think of a female moth intending to lay eggs. It can lay eggs on a tomato, and now there are several tomato bushes, some of them are emitting sound and others are not," Hadany said.
Also read:?Scientists Create Genetically Modified Plants That Are Resistant To Droughts
"Would it prefer the ones that emit sounds or the ones that do not? This is something we¡¯re looking at, at the moment."
What do you think about this fascinating research? Let us know in the comments below.?For more in the world of?technology?and?science, keep reading?Indiatimes.com.
