Plants ‘talk’ of pollution

SCIENTISTS in Israel have discovered a way to test for water pollution by “listening” to what the plants growing in water have to say.

By shining a laser beam on the tiny pieces of algae floating in the water, the researchers said they hear sound waves that tell them the type and amount of contamination in the water.

“It is a red light, telling us that something is beginning to go wrong with the quality of water,” said Zvy Dubinsky, an aquatic biologist at Israel’s Bar Ilan University. “Algae is the first thing to be affected by a change in water quality.”

The secret, he said, is to measure the rate of photosynthesis in the algae, meaning the plant’s ability to transform light into energy. During photosynthesis, plants also release oxygen into the air.

Researcher Yulia Pinchasov said that testing algae photosynthesis can determine water quality more accurately and easily than labour-intensive methods now used, like chemical and radioactive carbon testing.