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Insects rely on sounds made by vegetation to guide reproduction
- supriyo-biswas 2y agohttps://archive.ph/tPyz8 https://archive.ph/tPyz8
- alonfnt 2y agoI wonder how you get the NYtimes to discuss a preprint?
- daniel_reetz 2y agoSome universities have a press or media outlet which generates press releases and handles media relations.
- woodson 2y agoBut usually only upon acceptance for publication (i.e., an editor of a scientific journal has decided to accept the manuscript, after peer review and usually multiple revisions based on said review). Preprint papers might as well be some crank’s blog posts. (Not implying that this is the case here, I just find it odd that the nytimes take it as is.)
- Davidzheng 2y agoFor what purpose does the plant emit sounds when it's dehydrated? Or is it just a consequence of being dehydrated like withering
- aithrowawaycomm 2y agoIt's a tricky question at this point: the clicking sounds seem to be due to a natural increase of cavitation in the plant's stem. But it's hard to judge the extent to which the plant actually evolved to do this vs it being an accident with little selective downside. In the near future genetics might shed some light on whether an ancestor was too quiet/noisy and had increased pressure on relevant genes. The disadvantages of too much noise are obvious (herbivores) but I haven't seen any convincing explanations on what the plant's advantage would be. There is some speculation on plant-plant communication, but maybe it is about attracting pollinators and seed-dispersers before the plant dies. Just a lot of stuff we don't know yet.
- rlupi 2y ago> I haven't seen any convincing explanations on what the plant's advantage would be. It doesn't have to be an advantage in emitting clicking sounds, just more advantageous to the plant overall lifelong wellbeing to be that way. (This is not my field, but I wonder) is it more expensive to be silent than noisy? This study (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5543975/ https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5543975/) hints that repairing cavitation damage is expensive.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- hinkley 2y agoSelection mostly says losing traits tend to become rare, and winning traits more common. It doesn’t have much to say about benign traits. That which does not kill you makes you weirder.
- notamy 2y agoIt’s been shown that sesquiterpenes released by plants can induce cloud formation: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adi5297 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adi5297 I now wonder if they use the sound to communicate with other plants to try to get clouds to form faster
- knowitnone 2y agosure. let's form clouds that blow away with the wind.
- nolroz 2y agoMaybe in a situation where some plants are dehydrated and emitting sounds, and others are healthy and don't - having insects select one over the other helps spread the load a bit?
- veunes 2y agoIt feels like a whole new dimension of plant-insect interaction that we’re just starting to uncover...
- beardyw 2y ago> Other researchers offered a more cautious assessment of the paper.
- Loughla 2y ago"Study suggests" usually means "there is very little substance here"
- llamaimperative 2y agoCan you link to a few papers in biology that you find credible? Or might it be the case that the entire enterprise of science is a stack of gradually-reinforcing “study suggests…” built over the course of decades and centuries?
- londons_explore 2y ago"They're talking tripe, but we can't say that"
- tiku 2y agoAnd how about chemicals released by plants, like cut grass?
- MrMcCall 2y agoThe system is in complete harmony. Sometimes the predators are in the ascendancy, sometimes the prey. Our science has little comprehension of the grandeur of the totality of Nature's balance, simply because the willful ignorance of the vast majority of the human race keeps us so out of balance in its destructively selfish competitions. We are the only creatures who can choose to manifest a selflessly compassionate ethos, instead of selfishly cruel indifference. When we choose compassionate service to all (including the Earth, herself), we not only improve the lives of those around us (and foment our own internal peace and happiness), but we also clariy our perception, allowing us to more deeply grok Nature's intricately beautiful systems that provide our sustenance. Only in caring for each other, we will learn how to properly care for our blessed mother Earth.
- fmbb 2y agoThe vast majority of the human race plays just fine with nature. It is the extremely few extremely rich humans that are abusing nature.
- amelius 2y agoYeah but we all keep feeding the monster.
- Retric 2y agoMowing shows a general disregard for nature by most people. People generally prefer an unnatural environment that at best mimics nature without any inconvenience. Even in parks well maintained and clearly marked trails see vastly more traffic than people just picking a random path through the woods. People seem to desire hiking trails of arbitrary distances not to actually explore.
- MrMcCall 2y agoWe have so little respect for the fungal colonies in the leaf litter that process the organic matter back into sustenance for the trees.
- eurekin 2y agoIs the sound part real? What frequencies are used to communicate stress? Is this in range of anything I could connect to a raspberry pico or arduino? My flowers desperately need answers :D
- copperx 2y agoIf I remember correctly, the frequency is ultrasonic. I'm not having much luck with Google.
- eurekin 2y agoGuessing that a ultrasonic microphone from a bioaccoustics site should fit the bill - otherwise, what could researchers pick themselves? This one, for example, picks up to 200kHz for €1050: https://avisoft.com/ultrasound-microphones/cm24-cmpa/ https://avisoft.com/ultrasound-microphones/cm24-cmpa/
- copperx 2y agoIt should be on the materials & methods section of the papers. I hope it doesn't go all the way to 200khz. Consumer audio can go up to a 192kHz sampling rate, which can't even record 100 kHz sounds. It seems the equipment will be costly.
- prewett 2y ago> Consumer audio can go up to a 192kHz sampling rate, which can't even record 100 kHz sounds. That's probably because the Nyquist frequency (the maximum frequency that can theoretically be reproduced) is 96 kHZ at 192 kHz sampling, but the aliasing for that frequency is going to so terrible and unpredictable (what is the likelihood that always sample the max point in the sine wave) that you wouldn't consider anything close to the Nyquist frequency. You might get something workable for 20 kHz (~10 samples per cycle), which is the edge of human hearing, so that quiet overtones / high frequencies in percussion like cymbals show up. If this is getting used to identify problems based on sound signature, not just "hey, the FFT shows a spike at 100 kHz", 10 samples is probably a bit low. So 1 MHz sampling rate at a minimum for 100 kHz.
- jjslocum3 2y agoIf a tree is distressed in the forest and there are no insects there to hear it, does it make a sound?
- jart 2y agoIt is so utterly deranged and insane that NYT says plants are making "mournful cries" when the source paper doesn't support that. When I'm hungry the sounds my stomach makes on its own isn't me weeping and wailing. When I'm flatulent that sound is not a joyful scream.
- someothherguyy 2y ago> NYT says The author is Gennaro Tomma, a freelance journalist. https://gennarotomma.it/ https://gennarotomma.it/
- echelon 2y agoIf a newspaper publishes something and it isn't under the category "op-ed", that article carries the weight of the paper.
- softwreoutthere 2y agoMeh, publication bashing, IMO.
- someothherguyy 2y agoThe author still wrote it, yet here he is not criticized nor mentioned, the NY Times is. Not many blame a book publisher when disagreeing with a book author, but it is common to do so for news journalism. Why is that?
- insane_dreamer 2y agoit’s a colorful descriptive and the NYT isn’t a scientific journal; calm down
- dd_xplore 2y ago> It is so utterly deranged and insane that NYT says plants are making "mournful cries" when the source paper doesn't support that. When I'm hungry the sounds my stomach makes on its own isn't me weeping and wailing. When I'm flatulent that sound is not a joyful scream. Nytimes has never been reliable
- tejohnso 2y agoOkay so months can pick up ultrasonic sounds, plants emit such sounds when stressed, and the moths prefer plants that aren't emitting stress signals to increase likelihood of offspring survival. Every part of that seems pretty amazing.
- SequoiaHope 2y agoYeah that’s amazing! Plants and moths just co-evolving some fascinating and beautiful traits. That reminds me of this particularly beautiful section from one of the newer Cosmos episodes, on how insects perceive light reflected from flowers: https://youtu.be/YJL63kv2_xg https://youtu.be/YJL63kv2_xg
- addicted 2y agoAnd also makes complete sense given evolution.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- LegitShady 2y agoDistressed plants say "feed me, Seymour" and moths hate it.
- Der_Einzige 2y agoSeems to validate antinatalism. Nature/reality hates weakness. Getting damaged in this reality often causes a self fulfilling prophecy. The alternative is to reject creating new life as an ethical action, since reality is on balance less than good.
- snthpy 2y agoI was wondering about why the plants are using energy to emit the sounds but since it in effect deters the moths it also increases their chances of survival.
- hinkley 2y agoI’ve been doing a lot of gardening the last couple of years and it still surprises me how often when I’m cutting weeds a yellow jacket will show up to see if there’s anything to eat. When they’re hunting they seem to ignore humans entirely. I still think hornets are generally assholes but I’ve come around a bit on some species of wasp.
- kiddico 2y agoThe more I get into macro photography the more I realize everyone is just trying to do their thing and survive. Metric and northern paper wasps in particular strike me as docile lil fellas.
- passwordoops 2y agoTonight on NOVA... The Hornet: Nature's Asshole
- hinkley 2y agoNarrated by Bear Grylls.
- notfed 2y agoThis implies something: that AI could detect distressed plants. No? I wonder what signals are audible.
- pkphilip 2y ago[flagged]
- chris_armstrong 2y agoA recent book, the Light Eaters, summarises much of the recent research into plant behaviour like this, including how maligned and misreported it has been over the past 50 years or so.
- michaelhoney 2y agoInterview (audio and full transcript) with the author, Zoë Schlanger: Emergence Magazine: The World Is a Prism, Not a Window https://emergencemagazine.org/interview/the-world-is-a-prism/ https://emergencemagazine.org/interview/the-world-is-a-prism...
- drewzero1 2y agoSome time in the mid-2000s my dad showed me a website he'd found called Screams of Wheat which purported to show a pitched-down video of ultrasonic wheat screaming while being harvested. I always thought it was just a joke to troll vegans, but maybe there's a grain of truth to it?