Richard Strittmatter

December 17th, 2020

ENVL-2400

The Effect of the Sounds of Pollinators on Kale

Introduction:

Decreased food security due to crop loss is a problem that humanity is currently facing

and will continue to face in the future. Major reasons or crop loss can be attributed to weeds,

pests, disease, and changing weather patterns (Oerke and Dehne, 2004). Methods to make crops

more resistant to living and nonliving threats are needed to sustain or increase crop yields. A few

methods humans that already use include fertilizers, pesticides, weeding, and crop rotation.

Despite the importance of food security, we know very little about how sound can be utilized to

mitigate crop loss.

From the few studies that have been conducted, there is evidence to support that treating

plants with sound vibrations (SV) has multiple positive effects on plants. SV treatments involve

exposing plants to vibrations of a specific intensity and frequency. Potential benefits of these

treatments include greater resistance to disease and abiotic factors like natural disasters. Sound-

treated Arabidopsis plants displayed increased drought resistance indicated by a greater

expression of genes involved in abiotic stress factors (Lopez-Ribera and Vicient, 2017). Several

crop species that received SV treatments had increased yields and resilience to disease as well as

a greater tolerance to droughts (Mishra et al., 2016). Farmers that use SV treatments could
selectively breed their crops that have been exposed to these sounds and cultivate a new variety

that has a greater natural resistance to these detriments.

The area I am studying in my experiment is the effect that the sounds of bees has on kale

(Brassica oleracea) at varying distances. Among the myriad of crops grown for human

consumption, kale is known for its widespread cultivation, ease of growth, and hardiness to a

variety of conditions. Kale is native to the eastern Mediterranean, but has since spread to Europe,

Asia, and the U.S. by the 20th century. It can survive cold temperatures, even being able to

endure a frost in the fall (specialtyproduce, 2020). There is no known effect that sound has on

kale or related species at the time of writing this.

Given the importance of food security, my study explores the effects of sound on plants. I

hypothesize that the sounds of pollinators improve the growth of plants. From my hypothesis, I

predict that kale will gain more mass if it is exposed to the sound of buzzing bees as it grows. To

test this prediction, I conducted an experiment in which I measured the growth of plants after

manipulating the distance between plants and the source of sounds that imitated buzzing bees.

Methods:

My experimental design consisted of three treatments placed 0m, 1.0668m, and 2.133m

away from a pair of five-volt Onn speakers. I replicated each treatment three times for a total of

nine replicates. I planted one kale seed in each of the plastic pots at a depth of 0.635cm and let

them grow from October 25th to November 25th. The dimensions of the pots are as follows:

Diameter top-10.4775cm, diameter base- 6.35cm, height-9.925cm. Each pot contained 236.6mL

of MiracleGro Moisture Control potting soil. I watered each pot with 50mL of Poland Spring
water on the following dates:  October 25th, October 27th, October 31st, November 6th, November

16th, November 20th, and November 23rd.

I conducted the experiment in my basement which has a cement floor, cement walls, and

a hardwood ceiling. I kept the plants on a white table 30.48cm under two light fixtures situated

almost end to end for the entire growth period. Each light contained two bulbs, one growth bulb

that emitted mixed spectrum daylight and another that emitted cool white light. The growth bulb

was 18 watts while the other was 32 watts. The brand of both bulbs is General Electric and both

are T8 light bulbs. Each bulb was also 121.92cm by 2.54cm and the lights were on 24 hours

every day.

I kept the temperature of the basement at 15.5556C for about half of the experiment.

After 15 days I lit the wood stove in the basement for the first time this year. This brought the

temperature of the basement to 19.444-21.111C for the remaining time of the experiment. The

speakers played the sound of buzzing bees at an intensity of 46.4db from 5:30-8:30 p.m. for the

duration of the experiment.

Statistics:

I used a regression design to analyze my data. I made a graph in Microsoft Excel and

conducted an ANOVA in R-Studio.

Results:
I did not find a significant effect of distance from a source of noise on the mass of the plant

(F=0.5461, among df=1, within df=5, P=0.4931).

Discussion:

The results of my experiment failed to support my hypothesis. This is reflected in the

graph as the plants closest to the source of noise had some of the smallest masses of all the

treatments. There is no discernable pattern among the treatments as the distance increases.

I might have found evidence to support my hypothesis if I had used a different intensity

or frequency of sound. Different plants will respond only to certain frequencies and intensities.

Arabidopsis thaliana displayed an increase in defensive gene expression with a specific sound

treatment of 1000 Hertz and 100 decibels (Choi et al., 2017). Oenothera drummondii flowers

produced sweeter nectar when exposed to the sound of a flying bee or sounds of similar

frequencies (Veits et al., 2019). The spectrum of light that the kale was exposed to could have

affected the results as well. For my experiment it was subjected to cool white light and mixed

spectrum daylight. Ideally, kale should grow in full sunlight (Boeckmann, 2020).
 When conducting experiments in the future I could play sounds at higher intensities. It is

possible that I played the sound too quietly for the kale to register it. The experiments mentioned

exposed plants to an intensity of at least 100db. I would also include more treatments and

replicates. This could possibly give me the desired result or at least a pattern to analyze for other

experiments. Furthermore, conducting experiments outside during the spring or summer would

yield better results as this is when kale is first planted.

From the results of my experiment, I can infer that kale might not be as susceptible to

sound as other plants or that kale responds to sound only at later phases of the growing season. In

one study, the flowers on Oenothera drummondii vibrated in response to the sounds they were

exposed to. This suggests that the flower itself acts as the organ to interpret sound vibrations

(Veits, 2019). The kale I planted did not produce flowers during my experiment. Given what few

studies there are, treating plants with sound might only be feasible on a small scale like a home

garden or greenhouse. The study by Veits was the only one to include the number of replicates in

their experiment with 167 flowers as their largest number.

SV treatments might only be practical in enclosed spaces as well. Ambient noise,

especially if the site is next to a busy road or construction project, could interfere with SV

treatments if performed outside. Performing the treatment in an enclosed space would ensure the

plants are exposed to the correct noise. A different crop could be used in future experiments too.

An agricultural research facility in China was able to demonstrate that several popular crops like

wheat, cotton, tomatoes, and spinach responded positively to SV treatments (Mishra et al., 2016).

It is possible that I used a crop species that sound has no effect on.
Citations:

 Boeckmann, Catherine. Growing Kale. The Old Farmer’s Almanac, Retrieved December 4th,

2020 from https://www.almanac.com/plant/kale.

 Choi, B., Ghosh, R., Gururani, M. A., Shanmugam, G., Jeon, J., Kim, J., ... & Bae, H. (2017).

Positive regulatory role of sound vibration treatment in Arabidopsis thaliana against Botrytis

cinerea infection. Scientific Reports, 7(1), 1-14.

 Kale. Specialty Produce, Retrieved December 4th, 2020 from

https://specialtyproduce.com/produce/Kale_7631.php

 López-Ribera, I., & Vicient, C. M. (2017). Drought tolerance induced by sound in

Arabidopsis plants. Plant signaling & behavior, 12(10), e1368938.

 Mishra, R. C., Ghosh, R., & Bae, H. (2016). Plant acoustics: in the search of a sound

mechanism for sound signaling in plants. Journal of experimental botany, 67(15), 4483-4494.

 Oerke, E. C., & Dehne, H. W. (2004). Safeguarding production—losses in major crops and

the role of crop protection. Crop protection, 23(4), 275-285.

 Veits, M., Khait, I., Obolski, U., Zinger, E., Boonman, A., Goldshtein, A., ... & Kabat, A.

(2019). Flowers respond to pollinator sound within minutes by increasing nectar sugar

concentration. Ecology letters, 22(9), 1483-1492.