Listening to the hidden life of soils

Listening to the hidden life of soils

Have you ever stopped to listen to soil? Researchers working in ecoacoustics do exactly that, using specialised microphones placed beneath the soil surface to capture the sounds produced by soil organisms and their activities. Recent studies highlight soil ecoacoustics as an emerging research field and a promising tool for monitoring soil biodiversity. By listening to these underground soundscapes, researchers have begun to detect differences in acoustic complexity and diversity associated with soil biodiversity, for example in forests and grassy woodlands (Maeder et al., 2022; Robinson et al., 2024).

Watch the video ”Listen to the ground” with Marcus Maeder, which is approximately 4 minutes long. It provides an impressive demonstration of how soil sounds are recorded, presents soil fauna alongside the sounds they produce, and explores how soil sounds can be linked to soil degradation.

You may also read the news article “Sounds of the soil: A new tool for conservation?” published in Mongabay and the watch videos therein.