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Music and noise can evoke many responses in humans. Now Flinders University scientists are using sound in soil to aid ecosystem recovery.
In their latest study, experts led by microbial ecologist Dr Jake Robinson, demonstrate the benefits of acoustic stimulation on the growth rate and sporulation of a plant growth-promoting fungus.
"In our experiments, we show that the acoustic stimulation resulted in increased fungal biomass and enhanced Trichoderma harzianum spore activity compared to controls," says Dr Robinson in a new article in Biology Letters.
"We strive to find novel ways to speed up and improve levels of beneficial fungi and other microbes in degraded soils. It could have wide-ranging benefits for restoring degraded landscapes and farming land to feed the world."
The researchers previously found a monotonous 'white noise' - set at 80 dB sound pressure level - also increased a similar response in soil bacteria E. Coli.
"Think of the monotone sound an old-school radio makes in between channels," explains Dr Robinson.
The fungus T. harzianum was selected for the latest study because of its known beneficial effects on plants, such as disease protection, plant growth and improved nutrient utilisation. In agriculture, it has been shown to parasitise other fungi which are often plant pathogens.
Dr Robinson says one of the next steps will be to study the benefits of various microbial growth on plant health and then seek to scale up the experiment outside the lab.
"While still in its early stages, the next steps will involve studying the microbiome response mechanisms, the flow-on effect on plants and how to scale it up in the field.
"We also need to understand whether this approach could have any potential cascading or unintended consequences," he adds.
In the absence of large-scale ecosystem restoration and effective monitoring strategies, 95% of the Earth's land is projected to be degraded by 2050.
Coauthor of the Biology Letters paper, Associate Professor Martin Breed from the Restoration Ecology lab at Flinders University's College of Science and Engineering, says the potential for this kind of approach is vital in a bid to head off further biodiversity loss and speed up ecosystem restoration.
Sonic restoration: acoustic stimulation enhances plant growth-promoting fungi activity (2024) by Jake M Robinson, Amy Annells, Christian Cando-Dumancela and Martin F Breed will be published in Biology Letters (Royal Society Publishing) on 2 October 2024.
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