MarcellinoMelika
About me
Student researcher at Francis Lewis High School working on bioacoustic research.
Marcellino Melika from Francis Lewis High School has participated in many research
competitions, achieving third in the Junior Science and Humanities Symposium in the semi-
finals for environmental science, with his research focusing on the interdisciplinary field of
sounds and plants, especially their recognition of sounds.
Currently, the research on plant’s capability to recognize and respond to sounds is very limited.
Many previous studies have found correlations between sounds and growth, even signifying
recognition and response to sounds, but no studies have pinpointed how this phenomenon
occurs. Identifying the specific cellular responses and areas responsible for has proven difficult,
but the rules or limits of this capability haven’t been explored.
His work is focused on clarifying the functions and capabilities of plant’s recognition of naturally
occurring sounds like water, determining the extent to which plants can “hear” and recognize.
His past work delved into the regulation of plant growth, which is often limited even under ideal
water conditions to protect against future stresses, and the “belief” that there is an abundance of
water available expressed through frequent playing of the sound of water near the plants, which
would hint at less possibility of future stresses like drought, and even the perceived continuance
of currently ongoing drought. His further work connects the areas of auditory conditioned
learning and plant’s recognition of sounds to determine if a plant’s capability to recognize a
certain sound is inherit (some sort of internal code that helps them correlate certain vibrations to
water and its sound indicating its presence, in order to emulate the advantages of hearing) or
gained through exposure (a plant correlates that the vibrations they consistently feel while
receiving water, whether through rain or otherwise, is the sound of water) – essentially
determining if the recognitory capability is rooted in nature or nurture.
Publications
Published documents
1
Documents under review
1
External documents
0
