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iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry

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

Matteo Vizzarri (1), Luca Marchesini Belelli (2), Alma Piermattei (3), Giovanni Santopuoli (4)   , Marco Ottaviano (4), Francesco Parisi (4-5), Jim Yates (6), Shahla Asgharinia (6), Giorgio Alberti (7), Serena Antonucci (4), Davide Ascoli (3), Giovanna Battipaglia (8), Alessandro Bizzarri (9), Daniele Castagneri (10), Simona Castaldi (8), Claudia Cocozza (9), Marco Dionigi (11), Sophia Djacenko (1), Claudio Donati (2-5), Michele Freppaz (3), Vittorio Garfì (4), Carmelo Gentile (12), Damiano Gianelle (2), Riccardo Giusti (11), Maurizio Iannuccilli (11), Jerzy Piotr Kabala (8), Tommaso La Mantia (13-5), Stefano Larsen (2-5), Bruno Lasserre (4), Fabio Lombardi (14), Federico Magnani (15), Christian Massari (11), Giorgio Matteucci (11), Francesco Mazzenga (11), Fabio Meloni (3), Alessandro Messeri (11), Marco Montella (4), Francesco Niccoli (8), Samuele Pellizzari (10), Massimo Pindo (2), Francesco Renzi (6), Giovanna Sala (13), Fabio Salbitano (16), Luciano Sammarone (12), Costantino Battista Sirca (16-17), Donatella Spano (16-17), Erika Stefani (2), Antonio Tomao (7), Renzo Motta (3), Roberto Tognetti (18), Enrico Tomelleri (18), Giorgio Vacchiano (1), Riccardo Valentini (6), Marco Marchetti (19)

iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry, Volume 18, Issue 4, Pages 202-211 (2025)
doi: https://doi.org/10.3832/ifor4830-018
Published: Aug 09, 2025 - Copyright © 2025 SISEF

Research Articles


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.

  Keywords


Climate-smart Forestry, Global Change, Internet of Things (IoT), Tree Monitoring, Ecophysiology

Authors’ address

(9)
(10)
(12)
Carmelo Gentile
Luciano Sammarone
Parco Nazionale d’Abruzzo, Lazio e Molise (Italy)
(13)
(14)
Fabio Lombardi 0000-0003-3517-5890
Università Mediterranea di Reggio Calabria (Italy)
(15)
Federico Magnani 0000-0003-4479-0916
Università degli Studi di Bologna (Italy)
(17)
Costantino Battista Sirca 0000-0001-7605-5700
Donatella Spano 0000-0002-5661-0241
CMCC Foundation - Euro-Mediterranean Centre on Climate Change (Italy)
(19)
Marco Marchetti 0000-0002-5275-5769
Sapienza Università di Roma (Italy)

Corresponding author

 
Giovanni Santopuoli
giovanni.santopuoli@unimol.it

Citation

Vizzarri M, Marchesini Belelli L, Piermattei A, Santopuoli G, Ottaviano M, Parisi F, Yates J, Asgharinia S, Alberti G, Antonucci S, Ascoli D, Battipaglia G, Bizzarri A, Castagneri D, Castaldi S, Cocozza C, Dionigi M, Djacenko S, Donati C, Freppaz M, Garfì V, Gentile C, Gianelle D, Giusti R, Iannuccilli M, Kabala JP, La Mantia T, Larsen S, Lasserre B, Lombardi F, Magnani F, Massari C, Matteucci G, Mazzenga F, Meloni F, Messeri A, Montella M, Niccoli F, Pellizzari S, Pindo M, Renzi F, Sala G, Salbitano F, Sammarone L, Sirca CB, Spano D, Stefani E, Tomao A, Motta R, Tognetti R, Tomelleri E, Vacchiano G, Valentini R, Marchetti M (2025). Hearing nature’s heartbeat: towards large-scale real-time forest monitoring network in Italy. iForest 18: 202-211. - doi: 10.3832/ifor4830-018

Academic Editor

Marco Borghetti

Paper history

Received: Feb 13, 2025
Accepted: Jun 05, 2025

First online: Aug 09, 2025
Publication Date: Aug 31, 2025
Publication Time: 2.17 months

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