Friends of Pando environmental project experts managed to record the sound of the Pando poplar grove in Utah, USA. The study was published in the scientific journal magazine Acoustic.
Pando Forest covers an area of more than 40 hectares and consists of 47 thousand trees belonging to the Populus tremuloides or poplar species. The fact that all stems are united by a common root system and have the same DNA makes Pando one of the largest and oldest living organisms in the world, with a weight of 6 thousand tons and an age of 12 thousand years.
Pando’s experts placed hydrophones (microphones that pick up acoustic signals in the aquatic environment) among the roots of the grove and used them to record low-frequency vibrations that sound like rumbling. The sounds intensified during the storm.
The hydrophones also detected branches colliding with each other up to 100 feet away from the device.
“Although this started as an art project, we see great potential for use in science. Wind converted into vibration (sound) and traveling through the root system could also reveal the inner workings of Pando’s massive hidden hydraulic system in a way that does not damage the trees,” said Pando Friends founder Lance Auditt.
The Friends of Pando plan to use the data collected as the basis for additional research on water movement and how strings of branches are connected to each other, as well as to obtain information about insect colonies in the root system.
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