Trees also have Twitter and their “tweets” are particularly revealing

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In our time, Twitter even used by the trees. And the tweets they send have to do with the effects of climate change on them in real time.

Scientists in Europe are using the power of social media to showcase the impact it has (climate change) on trees in an original way. So, they have placed sensors above and inside trees, who daily “read” the amount and speed of water transferred to the tree, the growth rate of the tree, and other data. These data are then transmitted wirelessly to a Twitter account, which sends messages at regular intervals.

The data show how dry and warm weather affect the water that a tree has and how it affects its growth. Beyond the tweets, these elements are visualized -and in real time- on the Treewatch website.

The original initiative is part of the STEESS (Studying Tree Responses to Extreme Events: a Synthesis) research project, headed by Dr. Nei Sas-Claesen of the University of Vagnigen, Netherlands.

So far, 12 trees in four locations in Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany are “tweeting” about their situation, while scientists are planning to expand the network to other countries inside and outside Europe. Their aim is to make this network an early warning system for the effects of environmental stress on trees.

The tree accounts are twitter.com/treeWatchNet and twitter.com/TreeWatchWUR.

Source: www.cnn.gr