A maple tree shows early fall color in Richmond, Vt. (Toby Talbot/AP)
Can we save forests by listening to trees?
Column: Two scientific discoveries could help reduce forest fires and prevent bug infestations.
By Robert C. Cowen | Columnist for The Christian Science Monitor/ October 2, 2008 edition
Science columnist Robert Cowen talks about trees ability to produce electricity and how that could help us keep them healthy.
Science columnist Robert Cowen
An old Broadway song laments, “I talk to the trees, but they don’t listen to me.” Now researchers are finding it pays to let the trees “talk” to them.
Humans have lived with trees for millennia. Yet two recent studies reveal that we still have a lot to learn about the subtleties of how they function. It’s knowledge scientists need to better understand how trees fit into Earth’s ecosystems. That understanding is crucial to estimating how much we can count on trees to soak up some of the global warming-related carbon dioxide humans are putting into the air.
One study involves listening to the ultrasonic complaints of drought-stricken, beetle-infested piñon pines, yielding new insights into the tree’s plight. In another line of research, investigators have solved the mystery of how trees produce low-level electrical power. This opens the way to using trees’ own electricity to power sensors that can provide early fire detection in even the most remote forest regions.
Shuguang Zhang at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and co-workers recently explained tree electricity in the PloS ONE, an online journal from the Public Library of Science.
None of the obvious suspects such as tapping into emissions from power lines or broadcast radio waves turned out to be responsible. Trees generate electricity from an imbalance in acidity between a tree and the soil. As the MIT announcement last week noted, this is the same simple process that generates electricity from a potato or lemon at high school science fairs.
Dr. Zhang explains that, while tree power is weak, it can supply a “trickle charge” that “just like a dripping faucet, can fill a bucket over time.” Thus trees can be a reliable power source to recharge batteries in embedded sensors.
The US Forest Service uses a sparse network of automated weather stations to monitor forest conditions and help in predicting fire dangers. A wider, denser network of tree-powered sensors that didn’t need periodic battery replacement would be a major improvement. These sensors would relay data to the nearest weather station, which, in turn, would send them to the central processing center. Four instrumented trees per acre should do the job. An experimental 10-acre plot will begin testing such a system next spring.
The MIT group won’t be asking the trees’ opinion of that test. But James Crutchfield with the University of California at Davis and David Dunn, who heads the Art and Science Laboratory in Santa Fe, N.M., are listening to trees in their research into the effect of climate change on forest infestations. They described their ongoing work two years ago on the Santa Fe Institute website. The journal Leonardo will carry an updated version.
The two found that trees stressed by drought emit sounds pitched too high for human hearing. The researchers suspect that bark beetles detect these sounds and thus locate weakened trees to attack. The beetles also emit ultrasounds with which they communicate among themselves. This, too, may attract more beetles to a tree under attack. Dr. Crutchfield is quoted in Science News as warning that these hypothesizes now need to be thoroughly tested. If true, it may be possible to use ultrasound to divert and confuse the beetles and thus protect vulnerable trees.
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Comments
3. Dr.Q | 10.02.08
humans have used trees and plants for survival for ages. As living organisims they have got to have a defense system.
4. Sarala Panicker | 10.03.08
“Effect of music on the growth of rice” was the thesis topic of an Agronomy classmate.
5. Nanda,A. | 10.03.08
Can we save forests by listening to trees?
Yes, certianly we can, as a phenology recorder(trees events, behaviour, pattern, response to surrounding environment)of western Ghat trees for the last five years, i found tree too talk,what we need to do is persistence to record observe, their response shows us which abiotic factor favours them, which helps us to understand climate-change at regional level.
NANDA,A.
Research fellow
Kuvempu University, Karnataka.
6. B. More | 10.03.08
Wonderful discussion. I love the research that the Christian Science Monitor brings to my door.
Anyway, I would like to see the difference on your trees that you are testing when you feed them fertile humus versus randomness of Nature. I would like to know that sound. I can help you with the test. By the way, Charlotte, you could be feeding your trees with the Kudzu.
7. John L | 10.04.08
Forest ecosystems in the west are in poor shape. More thought and action should be directed towards forest restoration, the process of making each element of the ecosystem function within its natural range of variability. A century of fire suppression has ravaged these forests. Now more fuel, poor nutrient cycling and the complete absence of critical ecosystem processes are all major causes of rapid declines in our precious national treasures. Restoration costs 1/5 of fire suppression. So instead of suppressing 100 acres of fire we could preemptively restore 500 acres. Restoration improves wildlife habitat, safety, recreational activities, and its beauty. We know what to do to save our forests, so lets do it.
9. Suvrat | 10.07.08
All this is crap…..
Listening to trees….utter rubbish….
Just grow more and more trees….
Thats all.
10. Anon | 10.18.08
What I find amazing is someone once said about 30 years ago that he could actually hear trees when there was very little water. Never believed him then, but now…
11. James F. Pasquini | 10.20.08
They say 1 out of ecery 6 people can hear ultra-sonics. I am one of those. Upon going into a Macy’s Dept. store my head & ears were ringing! I asked a clerk to have her manager turn their ultra-sonic alarm to the “day” position. She looked at me bewildered, but did tell him what I said. He went into the supply room and - presto! - the ringing in my head & ears stopped! I had the same problem years ago after building an ultra-sonic mosquito repeller. I couldn’t seem to adjust it to the proper frequency as I was still hearing it when it went into the ultra-sonic range. Upon complaining to my wife, she told me she couldn’t hear a thing! Funny to note that 1 frequency keeps female mosquitos away anda little higher up keeps both sexes away.
Getting back to trees & plants, maybe they actually pick up the upper harmonics of our voices. People who talk to their plants usually have healthier ones!
12. NORMA ERAZO | 10.25.08
Comments by Kunuthur Srinivasa Reddy are absolutely real. Trees can actually feel human vibrations, either positive or negative. Humans must have deep sensibility, gratitude, and respect for nature in order to perceive their vibrations and be able to communicate with them. Trees are unmercifully damaged, mistreated and destroyed by human greed, the targeting of so called “profits”. Think that every single harm done to trees shall be reversed to us. We are destroying our own life resources, that is unquestionable.! Trees and plants are the most grateful living forces in our planet!
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1. Kunuthur Srinivasa Reddy | 10.02.08
“Plants can speak. Go to them to speak to you. Glued to the chair you can never know them” is the meassage of Norman Borlog, the Nobel Laureate. The plants deserve greater attention than animals since the former are less privileged due to their immbile nature. However, the plants are excellent communicators through their body language provided the humans are tuned to understand their subtle responses. They enjoy classic music and love selfless nature.