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Last year, a group of scientists presented empirical evidence suggesting that spruce trees situated in the Dolomite mountains of Italy synchronized their internal electrical activity prior to a partial solar eclipse. This discovery appeared to offer a transformative perspective on how plants communicate and perceive their environment. The findings rapidly attracted the attention of major international news organizations and subsequently inspired the production of a documentary series. However, many researchers within the field reacted with immediate and sharp criticism. Some scholars questioned whether the original study met the rigorous standards required for publication. A new report, published in the prestigious journal Trends in Plant Science, now outlines these concerns in exhaustive detail.
For the original study, physicist Alessandro Chiolerio collaborated with plant ecologist Monica Gagliano and other colleagues. They established an experimental site in the Costa Bocche forest, located within the Dolomites. The team effectively constructed an electrocardiogram, or EKG, specifically for trees. They attached sensitive electrodes to three spruce trees, aged between twenty and seventy years, as well as to five distinct tree stumps. These sensors recorded a significant augmentation in bioelectrical activity during the partial solar eclipse that occurred on October 22, 2022.
The electrical activity observed in the older trees spiked earlier and with greater intensity than the activity recorded in the younger trees. The researchers interpreted this pattern to suggest that trees possess a form of memory regarding such astronomical events. They hypothesized that older trees might even transmit this specific knowledge to younger trees. This theory was grounded in their detection of bioelectrical waves traveling between the different specimens. Soon, other plant scientists weighed in with strong skepticism. They cited the study's small sample size and the excessive number of uncontrolled variables as critical flaws. Justine Karst, a forest ecologist at the University of Alberta in Canada, compared the findings to a controversial 2019 study regarding the "wood-wide web." This concept suggests that trees share resources and communicate through underground fungal networks. Karst co-authored a 2023 study demonstrating that there was insufficient evidence to support the wood-wide web theory.
Ariel Novoplansky, an evolutionary ecologist at Ben-Gurion University in Israel, was among the first to object to the publication of the study. He later co-authored the new critique alongside his colleague Hezi Yizhaq. Novoplansky posits that the observed spikes in electrical activity were far more likely caused by temperature shifts or nearby lightning strikes. He told the news outlet Ars that his doubts stemmed from the basic premise of the study. The entire argument relied on the assumption that trees would be functionally affected by the minor perturbations of a partial eclipse. This specific eclipse reduced sunlight by only 10.5 percent for a duration of two hours.
According to Novoplansky, forest trees experience significantly greater fluctuations in cloud cover and light quality on a daily basis than they did during the partial eclipse. He also objected to the notion that older trees could share "knowledge" of an eclipse with younger ones. He pointed out that every solar eclipse follows a unique path across the sky. Even if older trees possessed a memory of a past eclipse, they could not utilize that memory to anticipate a future one, as the conditions would never be identical. The gravitational changes associated with a partial eclipse are negligible. They are comparable to the gravitational pull of a new moon. For these reasons, Novoplansky stated that the 2025 paper represents the encroachment of pseudoscience into the heart of biological research.