The DRONESTRESS project develops novel approaches to estimate plant reactions to environmental stresses such as drought, heatwaves and pests using a combined power of the state-of-art techniques. Plants react to the intensifying weather extremes, pathogens and insect attacks, which can be detected in leaf temperature and colour by drone-borne cameras. Drone-based aerial monitoring is used to obtain detailed information on plant health and resilience on the scale of an individual tree, supplementing the established ecosystem monitoring techniques. DRONESTRESS targets two important impact areas: harvest planning in Finnish managed conifer forests and investigate the vegetation resilience to intense heat waves in Australia. The results will assist in development of land-surface and weather prediction models, detecting plant stress and in climate-smart management approaches in forestry.

2022

2025