How do Mediterranean forests respond to climate change? This is one of the questions the ECO-FUN project seeks to answer. Led by CREAF's climate change ecology team (Climate Change Ecolab), the initiative deploys networks of automated sensors based on Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. These allow for real-time monitoring of key ecosystem variables and their relationship with the microclimate. The sensors collect a wide range of data, such as soil moisture, sap flow, photosynthesis rates, and microscopic changes in tree volume. The network is already installed in Collserola Natural Park and has recently been expanded to Sant Llorenç del Munt i l'Obac Natural Park, in Catalonia.
One of the project's main objectives is to better understand the functional responses of forests to rising temperatures and extreme weather events, and to identify potential critical thresholds—so-called 'points of no return'—beyond which ecosystems may undergo significant changes.
Jofre Carnicer, researcher at the UB and CREAF
The sensor network also helps create a monitoring and early-warning system that detects risk situations and assesses forest vulnerability in real time. For example, one application of this system in Catalonia involves developing improved forest fire risk indicators with daily resolution. This work is carried out in collaboration with the Generalitat de Catalunya’s Forest Fire Hazard Analysis Service, which issues daily reports on fire risk across the region.
Furthermore, these sensors are used to "test new hypotheses at the cutting edge of knowledge regarding how forests respond to novel extreme climate change phenomena—such as summer droughts combined with extreme heatwaves that are unprecedented in the meteorological records of recent decades”, according to UB and CREAF researcher Jofre Carnicer.
The new installation at Sant Llorenç del Munt i l'Obac Natural Park
The latest location where sensors have been installed is Sant Llorenç del Munt i l'Obac Natural Park—specifically at the La Mata site (Mura)—with the aim of better understanding how the vegetation there evolves. The project involves installing a digital gateway on the official weather station tower, which acts as a communication hub for a sensor network across the park's forests.
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The installation has been made taking advantage of an already existing infrastructure and has had the support of the associations for the promotion of scientific and digital culture Meteoguilleries and DRON54. The tower that has housed the Park's approved meteorological station for years has facilitated the assembly and start-up of the system, avoiding new interventions in the natural environment.
The new system allows for continuous data collection on temperature, humidity, soil conditions and various physiological variables of the trees that influence the state of the park's forests. These data are not only used for monitoring, but also to analyse how trees respond to stress situations such as drought or heat waves.
Having this data available continuously allows us to advance our understanding of how forests respond to extreme climate events and improve the ability to anticipate risk situations. This information, together with satellite data on the state of the park's vegetation provided by the ECO-FUN project, is transferred to the park's forest managers and makes it possible to improve the conservation of forest ecosystems in a context of climate change.
