Our Farms and Forests

 

Sonar for Soil — How We Can Use Sound to Save Our Farms and Forests

Soil is the home to a whole range of creatures, from worms to moles to bacteria and a lot of their action happens out of sight, underground. And where there’s movement, there’s sound. So researchers have come up with sound tools to decode what’s going on in the soil without having to dig up (i.e. destroy) everything. By analyzing sound patterns in the soil they can learn what the biodiversity looks like, the land’s moisture levels, the rate of natural to human sounds, and much more. These indicators help assess the overall health of the land.

In basic terms, more sounds mean more species, which usually translates to healthier soil. But there’s more to it. What happens when we actively use acoustics to track the health of different landscapes?

Over the last century, industrialized farming practices have spread far and wide to meet the demands of our ever-growing global population. However, they have often led to a decline in biodiversity. What if we could maintain both high agricultural productivity and biodiversity on that same farm Researchers have developed something called acoustic monitoring which could help achieve both of these goals.

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