Effects of acoustic vibration on Olea europaea cv “Leccino”

Bruno Bighignoli ¹, Giulia Mozzo ¹, Marta Beccaluva ², Giovanni Stefano ², Luciana Renna ¹, Riccardo Mori ³, Elisa Masi ¹, Cosimo Taiti ¹, Stefano Mancuso ³, Diego Comparini ¹

Department of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry (DAGRI), Università degli Studi di Firenze, Viale delle Idee 30, Sesto Fiorentino (FI), Italy ¹, Department of Biology, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Via Micheli 3, 50121, Florence, Italy ², Department of Agriculture, Food, Environment and Forestry (DAGRI), Università degli Studi di Firenze, Viale delle Idee 30, Sesto Fiorentino (FI), Italy; Fondazione per il Futuro delle Città (FFC), Via delle Cascine 35, 50144, Florence, Italy ³

In recent years, the study of the effects of mechanical vibration treatments on plants has attracted increasing interest. Acoustic vibrations have been observed to trigger various plant morphological traits as well as numerous physiological and genetic responses. Although it is still unclear how plants perceive and transduce these stimuli, many studies report their sensitivity to different vibrations including recordings of natural sounds (e.g., running water, insect chewing) and artificial sounds as mono-frequency stimulation. To date, the vast majority of these studies have been conducted on horticultural or herbaceous plants, usually over short periods, while research on arboricultural trees has been very limited due to several factors, mainly for the long-life cycle and their woody tissues. In this work, we investigated the effects of low-frequency (120 Hz) acoustic vibrations on the tree Olea europaea L. cv “Leccino” over a six-month period. Our results showed that plant morphology, gas exchange, and leaf structures were affected by the vibrations. Plants subjected to vibration exhibited lower levels of photosynthetic activity and stomatal conductance than the control group. Furthermore, vibration-exposed plants showed a thickening of the upper and lower cuticles at the leaf level, distortion of the cells composing the palisade layer, and a decrease in chlorophyll levels within the mesophyll compared to the control group. These findings demonstrate that vibrations can modulate plant morphology and physiology, highlighting the need for further studies to understand the mechanisms behind these changes at the signalling and molecular level. Additionally, further research is required to determine whether these leaf-level modifications influence infield plant resistance to abiotic and biotic stresses. Adopting preventive control strategies such as this could contribute to the development of more sustainable agricultural practices, reducing the need for chemical treatments and external inputs.

Main author career stage: Postdoc / Fellow

Contribution type: Talk

First choice session: 4. Structure, physiology, and development

Second choice session: 3. Biodiversity and global change