The orchestra of soil animals

In the recordings of Sounding Soil, ground animals such as springtails, mites, centipedes, beetles, isopods, fly larvae, earthworms, spiders, orthoptera (grasshoppers) and cicadas can be heard. The majority of soil fauna make noises when moving through the soil or eating. A few also make use of the soil to communicate with each other. In addition, animals can also be heard who live on the soil, using it as a communication medium by generating vibrations that can be picked up by their conspecifics via the legs or body.

Soil fauna produce different noises – according to the size and structure of their body as well as their behavior: the greater the variety of animal sounds you can hear in a recording, the more diverse is the soil fauna.

A healthy soil is home to a wide range of plants, animals and mushrooms. It ensures the basic soil functions such as the decomposition of vegetable litter and nutrient cycling. The more diverse the creatures living in the soil are, then the higher is the functional redundancy of the ecosystem, i.e., if individual species are missing, their function can be taken up by other species in the soil. A wide variety of animals indicates a healthy soil ecosystem.

The soil makes sounds

The project Sounding Soil gives the soil a voice

The soil
makes
sounds