最新一期的《細胞》期刊上,有一項由以色列科學團隊發表的驚人研究。當植物面臨缺水、生存壓力或汙染,會發出高頻尖叫,且情況愈嚴重,發聲愈多次。植物面對的痛苦究竟是要向誰傾訴?我們可以如何將頻率接收技術結合農業?另外,除了說,研究顯示植物或許還能聽! 2023-04-08
https://www.gvm.com.tw/article/101513
Flowers respond to pollinator sound within minutes by increasing nectar sugar concentration
Posted December 28, 2018.
Abstract
Can plants hear? That is, can they sense airborne sounds and respond to them? Here we show that Oenothera drummondii flowers, exposed to the playback sound of a flying bee or to synthetic sound-signals at similar frequencies, produced sweeter nectar within 3 minutes, potentially increasing the chances of cross pollination. We found that the flowers vibrated mechanically in response to these sounds, suggesting a plausible mechanism where the flower serves as the plant’s auditory sensory organ. Both the vibration and the nectar response were frequency-specific: the flowers responded to pollinator sounds, but not to higher frequency sound. Our results document for the first time that plants can rapidly respond to pollinator sounds in an ecologically relevant way. Sensitivity of plants to pollinator sound can affect plant-pollinator interactions in a wide range of ways: Plants could allocate their resources more adequately, focusing on the time of pollinator activity; pollinators would then be better rewarded per time unit; flower shape may be selected for its effect on hearing ability, and not only on signaling; and pollinators may evolve to make sounds that the flowers can hear. Finally, our results suggest that plants may be affected by other sounds as well, including antropogenic ones.