Abstract
In recent years, the problems such as the forest decline caused by environmental pollution and the establishment of the tree medicine system are increasing social interest in health care of trees. However, there is no easy non-destructive diagnostic method for plants. Acoustic Emission (AE) is one of the ultrasonic nondestructive inspection techniques, and it is applied to the defect detection and strength evaluation of materials, the inspection of adhesion and welding, and the inspection for maintenance of constructions and machines. Since a phenomenon in which the water transportation generates ultrasonic waves in plants has been discovered, it is expected to establish a diagnosis of plant by using AE technique. In this work, the possibility of the AE as a new communication method between the plant and the human is discussed, including reports of AE measurements of the seedling of Japanese cedar planted in the acid soil and the camphor tree damaged by the atomic bomb in Nagasaki.
