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Tree-powered sensors can prevent forest fires

Tree-powered sensors can prevent forest fires

 

Forest fires are usually a natural phenomenon. They are common in forested areas of the US, Canada, Australia and parts of South Africa. Wildfires, as they are called, are part of the complex ecosystems functioning in specific forested areas. The climate in these areas is usually moist with extended dry, hot periods. Fires occur during the summer and autumn seasons and during droughts when dry branches and scrub are inflammable. The frequency of drought in many areas around the world is increasing and creating more wildfires and just like everything, it has now been linked to global warming.

In a recent discovery, researchers at MIT have come up with a bioenergy converter – that gathers energy from the trees and converts it to useable electricity, so the trees perform the function of living batteries, which do not have to be replaced. The solution for forest monitoring consists of numerous tiny temperature and humidity sensor nodes present in wireless transceivers networked together, and the batteries keep it running. So these strategically placed nodes will transfer data between trees.

Concerns can be that the technology will be used for power generation from trees – to use them as sources for powering small sized household gadgets, solar panels etc. Systems designed by humans always have side effects – claimed to be zilch with these systems, but the principle it works on is the acidity between the trees and the soil, consisting of numerous biochemical reactions, which should ideally not be tampered with.

Source: Popsci

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