The idea of music boosting plant growth has been around for many years, but a new study has found that monotonous noise stimulates a type of fungus that improves the growth of plants.
In a paper in the journal Biology Letters, researchers describe how they examined the effect that sounds had on the soil fungus Trichoderma harzianum, which is used in farming to promote plant growth, protect plants from pathogens, and enhance soil health.
When the researchers played noise to petri dishes growing T. harzianum, they found the fungi increased in size and amped up spore production. This in turn may help plants grow. The researchers hope to further investigate this finding to see how it could benefit farmers and the environment.
"Our novel study highlights the potential of acoustic stimulation to alter important fungal attributes, which could, with further development, be harnessed to aid ecosystem restoration and sustainable agriculture," they wrote.
When previously testing the idea that music aided plant growth, Mythbusters examined how plants fared when "listening" to death metal and classical music, although this was not considered a comprehensive scientific study.
Sadly, for the fungi in this study, the sounds being played were not Taylor Swift or Sabrina Carpenter, but a white noise track named "Tinnitus Flosser Masker at 8 kHz." This sound was played for half an hour every day at 80 decibels, about the amount of noise a lawnmower makes.
"We show that the acoustic stimulation treatments resulted in increased fungal biomass and enhanced T. harzianum conidia (spore) activity compared to controls. These results indicate that acoustic stimulation influences plant growth-promoting fungal growth and potentially facilitates their functioning (e.g. stimulating sporulation)," the researchers wrote in the paper.
They said this increase in fungal growth and spore production could be due to something called the piezoelectric effect, with sound waves being converted to a fungi-stimulating electrical charge.
"The mechanism responsible for this phenomenon may be fungal mechanoreceptor stimulation and/or potentially a piezoelectric effect; however, further research is required to confirm this hypothesis," the researchers wrote.
Alternatively, the sound could be affecting mechanoreceptors on the fungus' membrane, which allows the fungus to "feel" its surroundings.
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References
Robinson, J. M., Annells, A., Cando-Dumancela, C., & Breed, M. F. (2024). Sonic restoration: Acoustic stimulation enhances plant growth-promoting fungi activity. Biology Letters, 20(10). https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2024.0295
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