Music to my ears, what about plants? The Effects of Different Sound Intensities on Wisconsin Fast Plant Stem Growth

Plants are essential to our ecosystem both in cities and in rural areas. However, there are many outside factors which can impact plant growth such as wildfires, organisms who feed on plants, weather, sound, etc. In this experiment, we honed in on how sound intensities impact plant growth. Plants and greenery can be found growing from the most urban to rural areas. However, sound and the concentration of it is a large differentiating factor between large cities and farmland. Our objective was to determine if the loud busy noise of cities were positively or negatively impacting plant growth. Through our experiment of treating plants with varying intensities (0dB, 60 dB, 100 dB) of sound at 200 Hz, we essentially simulated quiet and noisy environments which would represent urban vs rural environments and its effects on plant growth. Based on our results, louder sound intensities do positively impact plant growth as the results of our experiment illustrate higher levels of weekly plant growth in cm throughout the weeks. However, the plants treated with a sound intensity of 100 dB were found to be droopier and more prone to die than the plants treated with 60 dB and no sound.