If you close your eyes and picture yourself in the forest, what do you hear? Birds chirping? The sound of wind flowing through the leaves? While these are no doubt signals of a healthy biodiverse woodland, experts say there are other auditory indicators below our feet that can tell us whether or not a forest is healthy.
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00:00If you close your eyes and picture yourself in the forest, what do you hear?
00:09Birds chirping?
00:10The sound of wind flowing through the leaves?
00:12While these are no doubt signals of a healthy, biodiverse woodland, experts say there are
00:16other auditory indicators below our feet that can tell us whether or not a forest is healthy.
00:21Researchers found that by monitoring the vibrations of the ground in wooded areas, they could
00:25actually tell the difference between, say, a recently deforested area and one that was
00:29healthy and flourishing with biodiversity.
00:31They say this is an important step in better understanding and monitoring the ecology of
00:35wooded areas, as all life on land begins and ends with the soil.
00:40Meaning using echo acoustics to check up on underground biodiversity can not only help
00:44monitor and provide metrics for restoration efforts in certain areas, long before plant
00:48and animal life in that area would provide any data, but it could also provide an early
00:52warning for areas that might be under threat, giving us a detection system far beyond the
00:57tertiary reactive ones we have currently.
00:59With the researchers writing for the conversation that it could also be a valuable tool, is
01:03climate change worsens as well, as trees and forests are carbon sinks, taking in CO2 from
01:08the atmosphere.
01:09Meanwhile, deforested areas are known to emit carbon, as dead plants and animals give off
01:14CO2.