Spruce trees can sense and prepare for solar eclipses, aligning their bioelectric activity like a symphony. Older trees appear to lead the process, acting as wise sentinels of the forest. Credit: SciTechDaily.com
Spruce trees don’t just react to solar eclipses—they anticipate them, synchronizing their bioelectrical signals hours in advance in a display of forest-wide coordination.
This discovery reveals a level of intelligence and communication in trees that rivals animal behavior. Remarkably, older trees lead the charge, hinting at environmental memory being passed down through the forest.
Trees That Predict the Sky
A groundbreaking international study has found that spruce trees not only respond to a solar eclipse but also anticipate it by synchronizing their bioelectrical signals hours in advance, creating a coordinated response across the forest.
Published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, the study shows that older trees display a stronger early reaction, suggesting they hold decades of environmental memory and may play a role in signaling younger trees about upcoming events.
These findings add to growing evidence that plants are active, communicative members of their ecosystems, capable of complex and coordinated behaviors similar to those observed in animal groups.
Study location in the Dolomite mountains in Italy. Credit: Monica Gagliano/Southern Cross University
The lead authors are Professor Alessandro Chiolerio of the Italian Institute of Technology and University of the West of England, and Professor Monica Gagliano from Southern Cross University, Australia.
“This study illustrates the anticipatory and synchronized responses we observed are key to understanding how forests communicate and adapt, revealing a new layer of complexity in plant behavior,” said Professor Gagliano.
“Basically, we are watching the famous ‘wood wide web’ in action!”
A spruce tree with recording unit attached. In the Dolomite mountains in Italy. Credit: Monica Gagliano/
Observing the Wood Wide Web
Using custom-built, ruggedized low-power sensors deployed across a forest in the Dolomites (Italy), the interdisciplinary team, comprising experts from Italy, the United Kingdom, Spain, and Australia, recorded simultaneous bioelectrical responses from multiple trees.
Their analysis demonstrates that individual trees’ electrical activity became significantly more synchronized before and during the eclipse, indicating that trees function as a unified living system that coordinates its response to external events.
A spruce tree with wires attached. In the Dolomite mountains in Italy. Credit: Monica Gagliano/Southern Cross University
Forest Acts as a Living System
“By applying advanced analytical methods—including complexity measures and quantum field theory—we have uncovered a deeper, previously unrecognized dynamic synchronization not based on matter exchanges among trees,” said Professor Chiolerio.
“We now see the forest not as a mere collection of individuals, but as an orchestra of phase-correlated plants.”
In the Italian Dolomites: researchers Professor Alessandro Chiolerio (left) and Adjunct Associate Professor Monica Gagliano. Credit: Simone Cargnoni
Preserving Ecological Memory
Professor Gagliano said the findings support calls for the preservation of wise old trees.
“The fact that older trees respond first, potentially guiding the collective response of the forest, speaks volumes about their role as memory banks of past environmental events.
Adjunct Associate Professor Monica Gagliano. Credit: Southern Cross University
“This discovery underscores the critical importance of protecting older forests, which serve as pillars of ecosystem resilience by preserving and transmitting invaluable ecological knowledge,” said Professor Gagliano.
Reference: “Bioelectrical synchronization of Picea abies during a solar eclipse” by Alessandro Chiolerio, Monica Gagliano, Silvio Pilia, Paolo Pilia, Giuseppe Vitiello, Mohammad Dehshibi and Andrew Adamatzky, 31 March 2025, Royal Society Open Science.
DOI: 10.1098/rsos.241786
Adding to its global impact, this pioneering research is set to be featured in an upcoming feature-length documentary, Il Codice del Bosco (The Forest Code), set to release in May 2025 in Italy. For a glimpse into this fascinating study, watch the official trailer:
Funding: Zenit Arti Audiovisive, OpenAzienda S.r.l., PrimoPrincipio Societá Cooperativa, IGA Technology Services and the Templeton World Charity Foundation, H2020 European Research Council
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