Plant bioacoustics: on the emission and reception of airborne sounds by plants, and their adaptive value.

Introduction

The communication of plants with their environment is crucial for their survival. Plants are known to use light, odours, and touch to communicate with other plants, with pollinators, seed dispersers, and herbivores. However, one sensory modality – acoustic communication – is almost unexplored in plants, despite its potential adaptive value. This is the focus of the current proposal.

Long-term Goal

Our long-term goal is to understand the roles of acoustic communication in the life of plants: what plants hear, and what they “say”. The proposed research builds on recent results that strongly suggest the use of airborne sound in plants.

Key Findings

We have demonstrated that flowers increase their nectar concentration within minutes in response to the sound of a bee’s wingbeat. Furthermore, we have shown that different species of plants emit brief ultrasonic signals with acoustic characteristics that vary under different conditions.

Research Objectives

Towards a general understanding of plant bioacoustics, we will investigate:

1. Plant hearing. We will investigate plant responses to pollinator sounds to uncover their temporal dynamics, mechanism, and evolution.
2. Plant sound emission. We will record the sounds emitted by different plants under different conditions and use advanced AI to interpret these sounds.
3. Functionality of plant sounds. We will test if and when other organisms – both plants and animals – respond to plant sounds, and the potential adaptive value of these responses.

Potential Impact

The proposed project has the potential to revolutionize our understanding of plants and plant communication. Our results are expected to open entirely new avenues of research such as the evolution of sound communication by plants, and the biomechanics of sound emission and sound reception in plants.

Applicative Implications

Our results might also have great applicative implications in precision agriculture, including remote plant monitoring and functional sound emission. These may play a role in fighting the global food-security problem and pollination crisis.