Friends of Merrymeeting Bay’s seventh presentation of their 26th annual Winter Speaker Series, Agro-acoustics: Listening to the Sounds of Soils, is scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 12.

Louise Roberts, assistant professor of marine biology at the University of Liverpool, will be featured.

FOMB’s Winter Speaker Series presentations, held via Zoom, are accessible via hyperlink at the top of the FOMB web page fomb.org.

This discussion focuses on research into the novel area of soil acoustics, based in part on recording of soil sounds across New York State, from golf courses to cemeteries, to ascertain whether this methodology can be used to detect pests and beneficial species.

Every day one walks around listening to birds, bees, other people, wind, dogs, traffic and other sounds from things one can generally see or are familiar with. But unseen animals living below control numerous ecological services directly tied to soil health including primary plant productivity, water quality, climate regulation and pest suppression, according to a news release from Ed Friedman, chairman of the Richmond-based nonprofit organization.

While the majority of soil animals enhance soil health, soils also have pests that erode both soil and plant health, such as white grubs which cause turf damage.

Current methods for monitoring soil-dwelling animals involve sampling the soil and hand sorting to find animals. These destructive methods are effective, but they are time consuming and require significant training in insect identification. Because of this, agricultural and horticultural industries increasingly rely on pesticide applications to manage soil pests. These practices involve site-wide pesticide applications and without any assessment of pest presence, identity, or population size.

There is evidence these applications may not be necessary in all cases. Additionally, such practices are unsustainable, having negative non-target impacts on organisms involved in pollination, decomposition and biological pest suppression.

Speaker series presentations are free.

For more information, call 207-666-3372 or email edfomb@comcast.net.

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