Sound artist Jeff Rice has recorded the inner workings of Pando, the world's largest tree, using an array of microphones including stethoscopes and hydrophones. The recordings not only provide an artistic representation of the tree's root system but also offer scientific possibilities for understanding and conserving the tree. By mapping the root system through sound, scientists hope to track changes in the ecosystem and identify diseases or stress. This knowledge can help protect and restore Pando, which has survived various challenges throughout its 9,000-year existence.
Researchers have recorded the sounds of Pando, the world's largest tree, using a hydrophone to capture the rustling of its leaves, birds chirping in the canopy, and critters scampering around. Pando is a single clone comprising approximately 40,000 genetically identical stems interconnected by a complex root system. The underground recordings offer new opportunities to better understand the "trembling giant" in a way that's completely noninvasive, including mapping out Pando's root system, monitoring water flow, and performing wildlife management that may help deter deer from eating the tree, which could hinder its regeneration.
Sound artist Jeff Rice has recorded the sounds of Pando, the world's largest living organism, using a hydrophone placed inside a hollow at the base of a branch and threaded down to the tree's roots. The recordings captured the eerie low rumbling of millions of leaves in the forest, vibrating the tree and passing down through the branches, down into the earth. Pando, a forest made of a single tree with 47,000 stems sprouting from a shared root system over 100 acres of Utah, is deteriorating due to human activities, leaving researchers concerned that Pando's days and all the forest life it supports are numbered.
Sound artist Jeff Rice has used hydrophones to listen to Pando, a vast living entity in Utah thought to be the world's heaviest organism. The 47,000 genetically identical quivering aspens are considered to be a single organism, with the "trees" actually branches thought to be connected by a shared root system. Rice placed a hydrophone inside a hole at the base of one of the branches, and lowered it down to touch the roots. He recorded the sound of millions of leaves in the forest, vibrating the tree and passing down through the branches, down into the earth.
