A New Kind of Ecosystem: Using the Internet of Things to Monitor Forests
Tags: iot
Published: 2022-12-14 08:37:54

In a world where atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations have risen by over 12% in the last two decades, it is becoming increasingly important to find solutions that may mitigate the climate crisis. Though answers to this problem are multi-faceted, one part of the solution surrounds forest systems and the ecosystem services that we receive from them. Aside from the aesthetic and economic benefits they provide, forests also act as a major carbon sink in the global terrestrial carbon cycle. In fact, it has been found that global forests between the time of 1990 and 2007 absorbed about one-third of fossil fuel emissions annually, which amounts to about 8.8 billion tons of carbon dioxide drawn down by forests across the world each year. 
However, forests are increasingly threatened by global environmental change, whether it be due to a rise in average global temperatures, a growth in the frequency of forest fires, an increase in the range distribution of pests and insects, or human activity such as illegal logging efforts. Regardless of the threats and disturbances that forests face both now and in the future, it is clear that their roles in the global environment are critical in the mitigation of climate change, and that more work needs to be done to maintain, protect, and study forests in a rapidly changing environment. One such way that we can do so is by “digitizing” forest systems with technologies based on the [Internet of Things](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_of_things).

## What is the Internet of Things (IoT)?

The Internet of Things connects objects that are equipped with sensors and data-collecting devices (essentially a “smart” object) with networks to allow for communication between devices and enable the transfer and exchange of a consistent stream of data and information. It is currently increasingly used in newer technologies and sectors such as smart home security systems, transportation, automated farming, or precision agriculture (Kim et al. 2020). Due to its interconnected nature and increasing reliance on wireless networks, IoT can be especially useful when used for analyzing big data and computing or storing resources in the cloud.

## Monitoring forests: challenges and solutions

The implementation of [IoT](https://pixelplex.io/blog/top-iot-apps-and-device-examples/) into environmental monitoring practices in forest systems will be a crucial step in improving our understanding of how such systems will respond to environmental disturbances, which in turn can inform our decisions on managing forests to ensure that they remain both protected and a viable part of the solution to climate change. There are currently several roadblocks that we must cross in order to 
successfully study and monitor our global forests in the future, and many of these challenges can be overcome by using the Internet of Things. In this article, such challenges will be discussed, as well as how IoT technology can be applied to them in the future.

_Field work can be time-consuming_

Much of forest monitoring is conducted as field research. While field campaigns on the grounds of forests themselves are extremely necessary to improving our understanding of vegetation responses on a local level, field research itself is very time consuming and labor intensive. Time spent in the field can be physically demanding, and due the necessity of conducting research over a large temporal scale for understanding response mechanisms, field campaigns can take a long time to complete as well. Using IoT-based monitoring methods in forest management would take considerably less time than conducting the multi-season and multi-year field campaigns that are often necessary for understanding long term forest system dynamics. The installation of the sensors and measurement systems in a study forest, whether they be sap flow sensors in trees, soil moisture sensors in the ground, or turbidity sensors in streams, is largely the extent of manual labor needed for the collection, exchange, and evaluation of data in a digitized forest that relies largely on the IoT for data collection and communication. Thus, IoT can save time when studying forests and forest dynamics while still maintaining a steady flow of accurate data over time.

_The issue of scale_

Another issue in monitoring forests and the field work that is conducted to do so is that only small areas can be studied at once. Forests cover about 30% of the Earth’s surface (NASA). Even if we were to group this land into categories based on similarities so that data and trends can be generalized, the amount of work to be done to completely understand ecosystem processes at the full extent is too great. Thus, the issue of scale and scaling measurements and trends up for application to larger areas is one of the challenges that we face when monitoring forests. However, we can combine technology based on the IoT with field techniques to create a more complete and holistic understanding of forest functions during a particular time period. For example, remote sensing is a relatively novel geospatial information technology that is used to collect imagery data through the use of satellites and satellite communication. Some technologies include LiDAR and NDVI, which can both provide accurate, larger-scale data on forest systems over time. While LiDAR relies on the reflection of light to determine distance between the sensor and an object, NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index) is especially useful in monitoring forests in that it measures the amount of water in canopies, thus making it an indicator of plant health. Data collected by these sensors are sent to remote servers for further investigation and analysis, and can ultimately be coupled with plant-level measurements taken in the field to form a more integrated understanding of ecosystem-level processes that may be governing forest response to disturbances.

_We need more real-time data_

With a lack of real-time data collected in forests, it is difficult to detect, monitor, and respond to disturbances when they happen. Our response to disturbance is only as fast as we are at detecting the disturbance itself, as we often discover forest fires, pest outbreaks, and pathogenic decimation of forests long after it is too late to respond to them. The consistent and real-time stream of data provided by IoT monitoring technologies will be crucial for closing this gap between detection and response. For example, temperature, humidity, and infrared radiation monitors can be installed in vulnerable forests to detect the presence of fires, and sound monitors can be installed to detect sounds related to illegal logging activity. Similarly, the same sound monitors can be used to detect the seasonal hatching and emergence of the first population of crickets, which can be invasive in some locations. In each of these cases, IoT and its real-time data collection may prove to be useful in decision making on whether or not intervention in response to these disturbances is necessary, and whether or not such disturbances will change in the future. Such data is also essential for pure science and furthering our understanding of how forests work, especially under a changing climate.

## Fieldwork is still important!

It is, however, important to note the cruciality of field work in the management of forests. Relying on the IoT does not mean terminating all field campaigns. The work done through the IoT is meant to work in tandem to that of field researchers - meaning raw and unfiltered data from the IoT should be coupled with finer-grain data collected on the ground. Many plant measurements critical to understanding organismal response to disturbance are currently impossible to take without being in the field. For example, measuring photosynthetic assimilation rates in leaves throughout a tree canopy or examining the unseen but absolutely necessary relationships between trees and underground fungal networks are important to study but cannot be done so with the IoT alone. Instead, we can pair our photosynthesis data collected on the ground with remote sensing techniques that measure canopy greenness to see how the two measurements might relate to one another. Similarly, field data on the abundance and distribution of fungal networks and their associations with trees can be analyzed in conjunction with data from soil moisture monitors to better understand how changing water availability might affect these symbiotic relationships and thus the overall health of the forest. 

## Conclusion

With the growing threat posed by climate change, it is increasingly important that we continue to study and protect our global forests due to their ability to sequester carbon and play a role in mitigating climate change. The Internet of Things is a novel approach to doing so, as it allows us to collect real-time data on changes that forests experience under disturbance. Basing management practices off of IoT-based methods is also time-efficient, and can also allow us to create a more integrated picture of our global forests when its data is analyzed in conjunction with local-scale data. Though we cannot put a full stop to climate change, investing in the development and integration of IoT technologies in forest monitoring and management might just uncover the missing piece of the puzzle to understanding how we can try to mitigate it.