Our soil acoustic team were very pleased to hear the interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme between Nick Robinson and the eminent ecologist Professor Bill Sutherland of University of Cambridge, who included listening to soil as one of his 15 issues on his horizon scan of key technological, political and shifts likely to have a big impact on the natural world in 2024. Our work on listening to soils as a way of measuring soil health gained much attention in 2023 and it was very gratifying for it to be picked up by Professor Sutherland in his annual list.
We are now well underway with our 2-year, DEFRA-funded soil sound research project with Warwick University, which will be completed later this year. Our lab-based experiments have yielded some fascinating results. For example, we can identify the sounds made by earthworms as they move through the soil, and our field team is very busy collecting thousands of recordings which will form the first-ever database of soil sound. Have a listen of one of our samples here.
We have lodged world-wide patents for our Soil Acoustic Meter (SAM), which will go into full production later this year and we will also be rolling out our soil acoustic service. We are also very excited about some key partnerships we are developing, which we hope to announce formally within the next few months.
Our work on soil sound is world-leading and we are very keen to ensure that our results are developed by those in the academic community who are interested in soil health and regenerative agriculture. We have already developed strong partnerships with Universities and other research institutions, and in 2024 we hope to expand those relationships both in the UK and internationally.
If you’d like to listen to the full interview, click here and skip to 2:55:50.
If you’re interested in finding out more about our ecoacoustic research, or you think our ecoacoustic surveys could provide valuable insight to your project, then please do not hesitate to get in touch via ecoacoustics@bakerconsultant.co.uk or on 01629 593 958.