Plant ecoacoustics: a sensory ecology approach.

Plants can detect many features of their environment, including vibration. A plant's natural acoustic environment contains information potentially crucial to fitness, and recent work shows that natural acoustic stimuli can elicit relevant responses. We propose an experimental approach focused on what plant tissues experience, using methods that precisely measure and reproduce the actual acoustic energy received by the plant. This experimental approach provides a general framework for understanding how plants perceive and use acoustic energy in their environment. Many interactions of plants with the environment have an acoustic component, including the actions of herbivores and pollinators, wind and rain. Although plants have long been tested for their response to single tones or music, their response to naturally occurring sources of sound and vibration is barely explored. We argue that progress in understanding the ecology and evolution of plant acoustic sensing requires testing how plants respond to acoustic features of their natural environments, using methods that precisely measure and reproduce the stimulus experienced by the plant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]