A recent scientific study has revealed that nature, specifically the trees around volcanoes, can act as natural early warning sensors in case of nearby volcanic eruptions. This is an important discovery in the field of geology, since environmental scientists could see their work in volcanic prediction facilitated by natural signals, no longer dependent on artificial sensors.
How do you think it happens? Because the CO2 expelled by the volcanoes before the eruption, when coming into contact with the leaves of the trees, causes an increase in their pigmentation, acquiring a green color. In this way, satellites can detect and predict such phenomena of nature, which facilitates the work of researchers and evacuation teams.
AVUELO
We are located in Costa Rica, where in 2019, a team of researchers led by Robert Bogue, volcanologist at McGill University, was able to demonstrate that the interaction of CO2 with the leaves of trees surrounding the still active volcanoes, resulted in a green hyperpigmentation of the leaves.
Currently, Bogue and Guinn -by NASA´s and the Smithsonian Institution hand-, are conducting the Airborne Validation Unified Experiment: Land to Ocean (AVUELO) mission, which task is to analyze the color changes in the leaves of Panama and Costa Rica trees, based on the existing CO2 amounts, which task is to analyze the color changes in the leaves of Panama and Costa Rica trees, based on the existing CO2 amounts, and try to establish new natural measurement methods to predict eruptions and control the Earth´s health (being helped by the NASA´s Orbiting Carbon Observatory 2, frequently used to supervise the planet´s surface from a satellite view).
The mission
“The whole idea is to find something that we could measure instead of carbon dioxide directly, to give us a proxy to detect changes in volcano emissions”, stated Bogue. The impact of CO2 on the color of leaves in tropical trees surrounding volcanoes has been the last discovered meter to be added to the existing list. Changes in the height of the soil or earthquakes prior to eruptions are meters that are currently used, and have more reach and reliability than colored sheets.
How much CO2 can trees absorb?
The concepts of climate change, global warming or pollution are not new to anyone. Most of the population knows what we are talking about. The levels of atmospheric pollution and CO2 emissions that humans are emitting into the atmosphere reach astronomical figures. Despite the measures that can be taken from a state level, science continues to investigate how the Earth responds and will respond to this situation. This is why this topic also interests the researchers who are part of the AVUELO team. Can nature help us with excess emissions?
“We’re interested not only in tree responses to volcanic carbon dioxide as an early warning of eruption, but also in how much the trees are able to take up […]”. This statement was made by John Fisher, member of the AVELO team and climatologist at Chapman’s University in California.
What´s next?
Both geology and volcanology are working together to continue investigating and discovering new ways of understanding the behavior of nature, and how we can take advantage of it without harming it. The data obtained from these investigations will be of great scientific and social value, since they would be directly related to the protection of people and houses adjacent to the volcanoes, and on the other hand, we would understand how we should proceed in the future as regards emissions and pollution, although this is still an open issue for human beings. It’s probably already too late.
Read more about NASA´s Earth observation here!
