Hearing nature’s heartbeat: towards large-scale real-time forest monitoring network in Italy

Climate change undermines forests’ health, vitality, and, as a consequence, tree functionality, productivity, and resilience to biotic disturbances. Mountain and sub-alpine forests are particularly susceptible to climate extremes and are showing signs of degradation in Europe. Warmer temperatures, drought, higher frequency and intensity of natural disturbances increasingly alter species distribution and survival, their growing capacity, reproduction, establishment, as well as their potential adaptation to climate change. Real-time monitoring of trees’ and stands’ responses to such events provides an effective way to better understand and even foresee the adverse side effects of climate change. The use of advanced and innovative monitoring tools and devices is required for ensuring long-term, large-scale, and real-time monitoring of forest dynamics. Here, we present the TreeTalker Italia Network (TTIN), i.e., the first large-scale network of tree-proximal sensors (TreeTalkers©) at a national scale in Italy. We describe the recent advances, innovations, and potential of such devices for continuous monitoring and research. As a primer, we argue that TTIN will provide effective support to ongoing science and policy efforts for monitoring natural resources’ dynamics on a large scale (e.g., forest inventory, climate impacts), including their effects on human well-being.

Authors

Publication Details

Journal
iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry
Published
2025-08-08
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3832/ifor4830-018
Primary Topic
Remote Sensing and LiDAR Applications
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

Hearing nature’s heartbeat: towards large-scale real-time forest monitoring network in Italy

Robert W. Motta, Serena Antonucci, A. Piermattei, M. Montella et al.
iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry
Remote Sensing and LiDAR Applications
article

Hearing nature’s heartbeat: towards large-scale real-time forest monitoring network in Italy

Robert W. Motta, Serena Antonucci, A. Piermattei, M. Montella, Giovanni Santopuoli, Simona Castaldi, Giovanna Sala, Luciano Sammarone, M Ottaviano, Alessandro Messeri, Massimo Pindo, Luca Belelli Marchesini, Daniele Castagneri, John R. Yates, Antonio Tomao, Fabio Lombardi, Davide Ascoli, Anna Rita Bizzarri, Riccardo Valentini, Christian Massari, Jerzy Piotr Kabala, Roberto Tognetti, Riccardo Giusti, Matteo Vizzarri, Michele Freppaz, Claudia Cocozza, Francesco Mazzenga, G Matteucci, Costantino Sirca, Vittorio Garfì, Giorgio Vacchiano, Bruno Lasserre, Marco Anthony Marchetti, Maurizio Iannuccilli, Francesco Parisi, Francesco Niccoli, Donatella Spano, Shahla Asgharinia, Damiano Gianelle, T La Mantia, Giovanna Battipaglia, Fabio Salbitano, Carmelo Gentile, Giorgio Alberti, Marco Dionigi, Federico Magnani, Francesca Meloni, Francesco Renzi, Erika Stefani, Søren Ejling Larsen, Enrico Tomelleri, Simone Donati, S Djacenko, S Pellizzari
article en

Abstract

Climate change undermines forests’ health, vitality, and, as a consequence, tree functionality, productivity, and resilience to biotic disturbances. Mountain and sub-alpine forests are particularly susceptible to climate extremes and are showing signs of degradation in Europe. Warmer temperatures, drought, higher frequency and intensity of natural disturbances increasingly alter species distribution and survival, their growing capacity, reproduction, establishment, as well as their potential adaptation to climate change. Real-time monitoring of trees’ and stands’ responses to such events provides an effective way to better understand and even foresee the adverse side effects of climate change. The use of advanced and innovative monitoring tools and devices is required for ensuring long-term, large-scale, and real-time monitoring of forest dynamics. Here, we present the TreeTalker Italia Network (TTIN), i.e., the first large-scale network of tree-proximal sensors (TreeTalkers©) at a national scale in Italy. We describe the recent advances, innovations, and potential of such devices for continuous monitoring and research. As a primer, we argue that TTIN will provide effective support to ongoing science and policy efforts for monitoring natural resources’ dynamics on a large scale (e.g., forest inventory, climate impacts), including their effects on human well-being.

iForest - Biogeosciences and ForestryVol. 18(4)
Life in Land
Openalex Percentile: Top 81%
Remote Sensing and LiDAR Applications
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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