Researchers are using advanced imaging technologies similar to those used in hospitals, including micro-computed tomography on the Imaging and Medical beamline (IMBL) at the Australian Synchrotron, to determine how vulnerable our trees are to drought and heatwaves.
A new scientific review published In Nature outlines progress towards understanding the likely risks from droughts and heatwaves that combine to kill millions of trees around the world with spectacular effects on the environment.
Recent drought and heatwave conditions in northern Australia have killed more than 7000ha of mangrove forests, leaving these essential ecosystems stark, grey skeletons of trees. In California, the prolonged drought period has killed more than 100 million trees that increase the intensity of wildfires and impact on the region’s beauty, tourism and environmental health.
Dead trees, of course, cannot store carbon out of the air and the enormous numbers of dead trees release large quantities of stored carbon back into the air as they are burned or decay, further amplifying the effects of rising carbon dioxide.
>Read more on the Australian Synchrotron website
Image: IMBL robot positions the tree for imaging.