{"id":25498,"date":"2023-03-30T16:00:09","date_gmt":"2023-03-30T14:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sciencefocus.com\/?p=140131"},"modified":"2023-03-30T16:37:13","modified_gmt":"2023-03-30T14:37:13","slug":"plants-let-out-secret-high-pitch-screams-when-stressed","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/rss_feed\/plants-let-out-secret-high-pitch-screams-when-stressed\/","title":{"rendered":"Plants let out secret high-pitch screams when stressed"},"content":{"rendered":"

They sound a bit like bubble wrap being popped, apparently. <\/p>

By Jason Goodyer\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Thursday, 30 March 2023 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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It\u2019s the stuff of nightmares: you sit down to tuck into a tasty salad when, suddenly, one of the tomatoes starts to scream as you cut into it.<\/p>\n

While the above scenario is a gross exaggeration, biologists from Tel Aviv University have found that plants emit sounds comparable in volume to normal human conversation when they are stressed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, they\u2019re too high pitched for humans to hear but it is likely they can be heard by insects and other mammals, the researchers say.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven in a quiet field, there are actually sounds that we don\u2019t hear, and those sounds carry information,\u201d said senior author Prof Lilach Hadany<\/a>, an evolutionary biologist based at Tel Aviv University.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are animals that can hear these sounds, so there is the possibility that a lot of acoustic interaction is occurring.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlants interact with insects and other animals all the time, and many of these organisms use sound for communication, so it would be very suboptimal for plants to not use sound at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 Ohad Lewin-Epstein<\/i> <\/span>\n<\/div>\n

The researchers recorded the sounds of the tomato plants using regular microphones.The researchers placed tomato and tobacco plants in a soundproofed acoustic chamber and then later in a noisy greenhouse environment. In both situations they stressed them first by not watering them for several days and then by cutting off their stems.<\/p>\n

After recording the plants, the researchers trained a machine-learning algorithm to analyse the difference in the sounds produced by unstressed plants, thirsty plants, and cut plants.<\/p>\n

They found that stressed plants produced around 30 to 50 high-pitched clicks or pops per hour at random intervals, while unstressed produced far fewer.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, the machine-learning algorithm was able to identify the different types of sounds produced depending on the cause of stress and also which plant they came from.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not yet clear exactly how the plants are producing these sounds, though the researchers suggest that it might be due to the formation and bursting of air bubbles inside the plants.<\/p>\n

Similarly, it\u2019s unclear what the purpose of the sounds is. However, it\u2019s likely that other plants and animals are \u2018listening in\u2019 to gain some sort of benefit, the researchers say.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s possible that other organisms could have evolved to hear and respond to these sounds,\u201d said Hadany.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor example, a moth that intends to lay eggs on a plant or an animal that intends to eat a plant could use the sounds to help guide their decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf other plants have information about stress before it actually occurs, they could prepare.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more about plants:<\/strong><\/p>\n