Trees twitter to bring forests online

Researchers of the European COST-Action 'STReESS' enable trees to report in real time on their response to a changing climate. The smallest variations caused by transpiration, water flow, and the shrinking and swelling of the trunk are measured and made publicly available via a web page. The twittering trees provide researchers with information on the direct responses of the tree to heat and drought-stress. On the other hand everybody can now interact via twitter with the trees and get a feeling for the trees responses.

In Germany a beech tree on the ecological research station Britz is sharing this information, in Belgium there are several beech and oak trees twittering. The next one to join the community stands in the Netherlands, and so, bit by bit, these high resolution data shall be collected across the globe.

More information:

• STReESS-Website: http://streess-cost.eu/
• Thünen Institute of Forest Ecosystems: http://www.thuenen.de/en/wo
• Thünen Institute on TreeWatchNet: http://treewatch.net/thunen-institute-forest-ecoystems/
• Press release (in German)