Ultrasound reveals trees’ drought-survival secrets

Scientists turned a forest into a lab to figure how some species cope with repeated dry spells

A photo of a trees in a forest taken from the ground and looking up towards the sky.

In a forest much like this one outside Munich, scientists are closely monitoring trees to understand why some recover from dry spells and others don’t. That information will be crucial for making forests more resilient as droughts increase in frequency and intensity.

Alexander Gulde/EyeEm/Getty Images Plus

The tissues of living trees may hold the secrets of why some can recover after drought and others die.