Learning Plant Learning: Prof. Ariel Novoplansky at TEDxJaffa

Professor Ariel Novoplansky talks about the unique way in which plants communicate through their roots. Via a complex system of non-verbal communication, plants are able to warn each other of impending danger and experiences. With his team of research scientists, Prof. Novoplansky has mapped the ways in which plants communicate, an important factor in agricultural planning, and also proven that plants have memory.
Prof. Novoplansky was born and raised in Israel and received his Ph.D. in ecology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Following a post-doc period at the University of Michigan he joined the Mitrani Department of Desert Ecology, Institutes for Desert Research of the Ben-Gurion University.
His scientific work focuses on evolutionary ecology of plants. His current research is related to the evolutionary rationale and physiological mechanisms enabling plants to make developmental decisions based on information they perceive from their environment and neighbors.

[@kathyk5589]

I absolutely Loved your video! I love learning all about plants as I talk to my plants, sing to them, prune them, water them and care for them so much I actually feel love for my plants and I always thought that was a weird thing about me but after seeing your video I am starting to feel ok about it. Thanks!

[@sabinoluevano7447]

wow very impressive, and I am so glad that he acknowledged his team, most scientists don´t do that: they take all the credit for the work donde by a whole team.

[@niwayantucson1400]

Thank you for sharing this knowledge and information dear Prof. Ariel. It true what you explains about the plants communication.

[@olegog911ll]

What an interesting TALK! Thanks for this beautiful knowledge on plants! You've made me feel CLOSER TO THEM and love them much more! THANKS again to you and your great team! 🤗

[@zoomzoom530]

Thanks a lot :>)

[@JerriStokes]

Great talk!!! It seems this forest is more human than most humans....

[@Santilzb]

Great finding and wonderful talk. The secret like this happening in the natural systems shapes our planet.

[@zoomzoom530]

All you need to imagine is a regulatory switch of sorts to stress-response gene which goes off. Many such epigenetic phenomena are known and require no involvement of nerves or a central nervous system (CNS). Recent studies also show that sometimes, such experiences can even be carried on to the following generations, a phenomenon called epigenetic inheritance.. I'll be happy to provide more info upon request.

[@frankmartinez2987]

More info, please.

[@miriam84990]

The very last segment of the talk exactly refers to that...Plants that have experienced communicated drought cues, better survived subsequent drought periods (see the very last slide..). Nowadays, we are finalizing yet another experiment showing long-term drought readiness (priming) gained following stress cuing.

[@mjdobson88]

Amazing. Great work professor Ariel.

[@user-rk3dl3vg3c]

This is amazing. Todah!

[@squito94]

I'll never look at plants the same way again.

[@squito94]

Viknesh Jay I'll look it up but plagiarizing or not it's still interesting info.

[@TheDarim]

Ariel, Have you ever analysed symptoms of adaptation other than stomata movements? You have shown plants that could survive drought having been warned about the imminent danger. How have they managed it? Closing stomata itself does not seem to be a very good long term strategy of coping with drought. Any insights?

[@SeerWS]

Thank you for your thought-provoking responses! I can see how lingering adaptations would be a hindrance in less predictable environments. Now I'm trying to wrap my head around 'readiness' - I always felt that humans are the fittest animal partially because we can predict the near future more accurately and in greater detail than any other organism. From that perspective, the better an organism is at 'readiness', the higher its chances of survival. But this doesn't fit with what you said...

[@SeerWS]

The part I can't wrap my head around is how the plants store the memory. I think there must be a simpler mechanism at play than actual storage of memory. For example, it could be that an automatically-occurring reaction to drought becomes desensitized for a period of time afterward...

[@mollyclock8238]

the communication system i love it.

[@alextupou4992]

Awesome presentation.

[@SeerWS]

Very interesting... is the severity of the experience correlated with how often epigenetic inheritance occurs? Or does it occur seemingly at random...

[@woodspriteful]

During this whole lecture I was thinking that I would like to spend more time in relationship with plants vs people, and at the very end, when the Isrealli Science Foundation was mentioned, I had a thought - what if forced collaborative projects between Isrealli and Palenstinean teams of researchers and artists were funded until the point when new discoveries and shared experiences outweighed the past?

[@joeyhinds6216]

the more i think about this the less amazing it seems-- though perhaps that's the point. Single celled organisms can do some amazing feats of communication/memory themselves

[@zoomzoom530]

It's early days but it can be generally expected that cross-generational effects will be more common and stronger where the correlation btw the conditions experiences by parents and offspring is stronger. However, natural selection is not expected to promote such lingering adaptations (readiness) where the environment is noisier and less predictable.

[@hardaqa]

Communication or roots canal system leaking...

[@mathiasmaranhao]

Brilliant

[@zoomzoom530]

We already know, though haven't published yet... that the signal is a chemical one. There are promising indications that it involves ABA, a plant stress hormone, which is responsible for stress signaling within plants and can be exuded from roots, at least to some extent in some plants. As far as I know, there aren't any scientific evidence for the effects of music, as such, and of human emotions on plant growth.

[@kennethbynum4253]

after my county agent registered my hardwood forest, we were told they had no records of anyone else ever having planted an extensive hardwood forest

[@kennethbynum4253]

The forest is academic only, you can see it on facebook

[@Saskia-uz4ds]

I know this all is true, however, you should have done the experiment a little different, because now one could argue the second plant got stressed not because of communication, but because the first pland releases the poison from bottle 1 to bottle 2. A better way to prove communication is to use 2 quartz jars. your glass pots block the communication, however, quartz doesn't. Then there is no touching and they can still communicate.

[@zoomzoom530]

Humans aren't the "fittest animal" around. In evolution, "fitness" is only determined in relative terms, regardless of absolute abilities to survive and reproduce but that belongs to another discussion. Strong predictive abilities have been selected for in most, if not all organisms, including plants but such abilities can be extremely costly and if information re. future conditions isn't good enough, less flexible (the scientific term is "plastic") adaptations are selected for.

[@kimquat_]

He's the Lorax. _he speaks for the trees_

[@anavonrebeur6121]

Esto ya lo sabia Night Shyamalan

[@animalmotherdk2649]

He does know that plants absorb water ye? That is why the other plant reacted as well because the first plant was putting salt or other bad water in to the centre pot so the second plant absorbed the water just the same as the first so it had do the same thing as the first.

[@zoomzoom530]

Thanks for the response but water depletion by the induced plant was demonstrated to be negligible (the presentation of such data isn't suitable for a short TED talk...) or not relevant at all (in some cases plants were grown in test tubes full of water). In addition, we have now shown that the plant stress hormone abscisic acid (ABA) is the vector of root-root communication in this case and a very short exposure of one of the roots of the induced plant to ABA was sufficient to evoke the same responses in the neighboring plants... :>)

[@gareth6326]

@@zoomzoom530 I don't think you understood the original comment. It wasn't talking about water depletion of the shared water source, it was suggesting that the polluted plant passed the pollution on to the shared water source

[@zoomzoom530]

@@gareth6326 in the reported experiment no salt or "pollution" was invovled, only drought (water limitation). I do appreciate your interest in the topic and our work.

[@gareth6326]

@@zoomzoom530 oh, I assumed you would have tested with s pollutant becuase the presenter talks about high salt at the start. I have hydroponic plants at home which have roots poking out of the water, they are all doing fine. In fact many guides promote this.

[@zoomzoom530]

@@gareth6326 The same "pollution" (it was not pollution, just some clay and vermiculite) was used in the wet control treatment as well, just soaked with water, so if anything was "polluting" the plants, it was doing it to even a greater extent in the wet controls...

[@jessicawinslet684]

just like the flying car debates of the 60's and all the problems associated with flying cars LOL hahahahah

[@xyyzy5368]

Hi 1MBIO7

[@Sophia.]

Tolkien would have loved this - no, wait, he knew... ;)

[@sirrenatin6208]

compra bot direito pai

[@johngabris6293]

they have a conscience, they share distressful information to other neighbor plant for survival needs and philosophical reasons, they have empathy for one another. They aren't senseless and for that reason I feel very different about them.