Hay meadow vibroscape and interactions within insect vibrational community

Our experiences shape our knowledge and understanding of the world around us. The natural vibrational environment (vibroscape) is hidden to human senses but is nevertheless perceived and exploited by the majority of animals. Here, we show that the vibroscape recorded on plants in a temperate hay meadow is a dynamic low-frequency world, rich in species-specific vibrational signals. The overall vibroscape composition changed throughout the season and also depended on the plant species, as well as on the spatial position of individual plants within the meadow. Within the studied community, vibrationally signaling species sharing this communication channel avoided interference primarily by partitioning vibrational space on a fine temporal scale. The vibroscape is a reliable source of information in the environment and expands our understanding of ecological and evolutionary processes.

Automated summary

Our experiences shape our understanding of the world. The vibroscape, which humans cannot perceive, is rich in species-specific vibrational signals and plays a crucial role in communication and ecology. Different plant species in a temperate hay meadow exhibit unique vibroscape compositions that change seasonally and based on spatial position, with species partitioning vibrational space to avoid interference.