trees

If the question is whether trees and vegetation serve to combat the heat, the Bioparc of Valencia has the answer: 13 degrees less

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Going out for a walk through the center of a big city at three in the afternoon in the middle of July is a great challenge for many people because they literally begin to roast due to the high temperatures. But in these situations, taking shelter in a dense park promises relief almost immediately, as has been demonstrated in different areas of Valencia such as the Bioparc, where the wind chill drops 13 degrees with respect to the asphalt environment, as its sensors have demonstrated. A question of perception. When we read “13 degrees minus”, our brain immediately thinks about the air temperature. And this is where it is important to qualify, since a tree is not going to take air at 40 °C and magically convert it into air at 27 °C. However, air temperature is only part of the equation. What really determines whether we are comfortable or on the verge of heat stroke is the cthermal comfort, measured by indices like PET (Physiological Equivalent Temperature). These indices take into account air temperature, but also humidity, wind speed and, above all, the average radiant temperature. On the street. Science in this case shows that direct solar radiation on our skin and the heat radiated by hot asphalt trigger our thermal stress. A specific study on shade infrastructure and outdoor thermal comfort demonstrated that urban shading can reduce the PET index between 9.4 and 17.1 ºC. Therefore, the 13-degree drop cited by the Valencia data fits perfectly with what science has been measuring for years. The air temperature does not drop drastically, but the radiant load does plummet. Why are trees so good? Here science has shown that tree canopies block direct solar radiation, and a field study of tree shading confirms that this interception of sunlight causes large drops in the mean radiant temperature under the canopy, eliminating the “oven effect” of direct sun. But they also act as a natural air conditioner, since, unlike a metal awning or pergola, which heat up and radiate heat, the trees are alive. This means that they absorb water through the roots and release it in the form of vapor through the leaves. This process consumes thermal energy from the environment, actively cooling the air around them, even if it is a few tenths or a couple of degrees. We need trees. The debate about whether to put more or fewer trees in a square is no longer a purely aesthetic or landscaping issue. It is directly a matter of public health, since science is quite clear that exposure to extreme heat triggers mortality and morbidity. That is why these natural environments act as a protective shield that is very necessary. It is no coincidence that institutions such as the Climate Cities Network are publishing technical guides to integrate “climate shelters” into urban planning. And it is no wonder because a climate shelter is nothing more than a space that offers safe thermal conditions for the vulnerable population during episodes of extreme heat. And the data makes it clear, since a well-designed park, with trees with wide, dense crowns, is one of the best possible refuges. Images | Andy Lee In Xataka | In the 19th century it was planted in parks for its beauty: today this tree is one of the trees that breaks the most pipes and sidewalks in Spain

One study said that trees “sense” eclipses 14 hours in advance. The real explanation is much more boring

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In 2025, a team of Italian scientists discovered something surprising regarding eclipses. According to a study carried out in a coniferous forest of the Dolomitestrees can predict solar eclipses through changes in their internal electrical activity. Does this have any scientific use? Logically not, since there are other, much simpler and more proven ways to predict an eclipse. There are eclipses predicted a thousand years from now. Even so, the study was very well received, since it is a great example of curious science. The problem is that, according to the analysis of scientists Ariel Novoplansky and Hezi Yizhaq published this year in Trends in Plant Sciencethe results of that study were purely speculative, since there are other reasons why these changes in the electrical activity of the trees could have occurred. Changes in the electrome. Italian scientists detected changes in the electrome. That is, the set of electrical impulses that are transmitted through plant tissues in response to external stimuli, such as water stress or temperature changes. It is something like the electrical activity that is transmitted through our neurons. These researchers placed electricity sensors in conifers of the species Picea abies during a partial eclipse that could be seen in the Dolomites in 2022. They observed that, fourteen hours before the eclipse began, older trees experienced a large increase in their electrical activity. Furthermore, they then spread it to younger trees. Little sense. If you think about it, this doesn’t make much sense. We have seen that changes in the electrome are usually in response to external stimuli. It is true that during a solar eclipse decreases the temperaturebut two factors must be taken into account. The first is that they do it just when the eclipse begins, not fourteen hours before. On the other hand, in this particular partial eclipse, in the Dolomites area, sunlight was barely reduced by 10% for a couple of hours. The temperature should not have dropped slightly and the changes in luminosity should not have caused stress for the trees either. Lightning and sparks. For the scientists who published the 2026 counteranalysis, the explanation for what happened in the Dolomites is much simpler. It is known that, just 14 hours before the eclipse, there was a large storm in the vicinity of the Dolomites, with intense rain and abundant lightning strikes. That, precisely, could have caused a drop in temperatures and, of course, a powerful electrical activity in the atmosphere. Trees act as electromagnetic antennas, capable of capturing the electrical activity of the atmosphere and transforming it into changes in their own electrome. The larger an antenna is, the more powerful its activity in this regard. That’s why changes in the electrome may have been greater in older trees. Simply because they are bigger. That gives even more weight to the hypothesis of the role of lightning. Just three trees. Another limitation of the study is that it only analyzed three trees and five stumps. We cannot get much idea of ​​the behavior of the entire forest. Collective memory of trees to predict solar eclipses? The Italian authors also point out that the intense activity of older trees may be due to the fact that they “remember” the effects of past eclipses, so that they respond in advance to the temperature changes that are to come. However, Novoplansky and Yizhaq recall that it is very difficult for an eclipse to be seen in exactly the same place in a relatively short period of time. In Spain, for example, we will have three eclipses in three yearsbut the totality, in the case of the two totals, will be in very different regions. It is true that two partial eclipses in a row can be seen, like the one in the Dolomites, but experts insist that the environmental changes with a partial eclipse are minimal. More experts. Although the publication of the Italian study represented a great wave of acceptance, the 2026 counteranalysis went somewhat unnoticed by the press. But not to scientists. For example, was picked up by Science Media Center Spanishin which the statements of two experts were published. On the one hand, astrophysicist Javier Armentia pointed out that “there are no mechanisms by which a pine forest can react to small drops in light that do not occur regularly nor do they interfere with vegetative processes, nor were the measurements of this anticipatory behavior explained by the eclipse but by, probably, a cold night suffered a few hours before.” For his part, professor of Earth physics José Manuel Vaquero explained that a small partial eclipse, like the one studied in the Dolomites, “generates smaller environmental variations than those produced by the passage of a dense cloud or a front.” That great activity that was mentioned in the 2025 study would not make sense. In short, it seems that no, trees do not predict solar eclipses. The good thing is that we don’t care, because, as we saw at the beginning, we already know how to predict them. Image | Wikimedia Commons In Xataka | A third of Spain will be completely dark for a minute or two. The astronomical event of the century is approaching

Today this tree is one of the trees that breaks the most pipes and sidewalks in Spain

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The tree that appears above these lines surely sounds familiar to you because you have come across it many times, either because it is in your city or because while walking on vacation through any municipality on the Mediterranean coast it was there, in its most stately gardens. A clue in case you don’t recognize it at first: its seeds have a kind of wings, which helps them spread further and better. It is no coincidence: the ailanthus (Ailanthus altissima) arrive from Southeast Asia two centuries ago for its size and presence, but also because it grew quickly in practically any soil. Today is prohibited by law: It is an invasive species that kills other plants and loads the sewage. Ailanto the colonizer. It can measure up to 30 meters, has gray bark and the leaves are made up of many elongated leaves placed in a row. Its fruits are like seeds with wings, hanging in clusters. One way to recognize it is the (bad) smell: if you tear off a leaf and rub it, it stinks. Since its arrival, ailanthus has spread throughout much of the peninsula, with special intensity in Catalonia and the Valencian Community. This tree colonizes ditches, slopes, degraded banks and abandoned gardens, wherever there is a free piece of land, there is the ailanthus: a single adult specimen It is capable of producing up to 350,000 seeds winged per year and thanks to their wings and the wind, the ailanthus continues to expand. The environmental impact of ailanthus. According to the official MITECO fileailanthus alters the functioning of the forest ecosystem and modifies the chemistry of the soil where it settles, making life difficult for other species. Thanks to its rapid growth and dispersed shape, it competes for space and light in areas close to rivers (rich in vegetation), releasing toxic substances that prevent other plants from growing around it. This environmental study by the Junta de Andalucía It confirms that where there is ailanthus, there is up to 35-40% less vegetation than in areas without it. The impact is not limited to vegetation: the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge points out which can also cause damage to urban infrastructure for one reason: its long and reticulated roots, capable of extending up to 15 meters from the foot. These roots look for cracks and gaps to spread, cracking pipes, sewers, foundations, buildings, and other structures. Context. The ailanthus comes from China, and although there is evidence that it was cultivated as an ornamental tree since the 18th century, the Ministry of Agriculture of Spain gives it as naturalized at the beginning of the 19th century. In the middle of that century, Marcelino Sáez de Sautuola, discoverer of the Altamira caves, wrote a letter to the French Acclimatization Society in which he commented on the success of planting ailanthus, at that time highly appreciated for its ornamental and medicinal qualities. Ailanthus is not only “a fugitive” in Spain, wherever it goes, it has problems. It is present and is classified as an invasive species in almost all the world. In the EU it appears in the list of invasive alien specieswhich forces member states to take coordinated control measures and is common in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, the Danube basin and practically all Mediterranean countries. The ban and fines. That is included within the Spanish Catalog of Invasive Exotic Species regulated by Royal Decree 630/2013 means that possession, transport, trafficking and trade are prohibited by law throughout Spanish territory. The fines are quite large: from 100 to 3,000 euros for minor infractions, from 3,001 to 200,000 euros for serious ones and up to 2 million euros in the most serious cases. That is state regulation, because each community may have its own additional regulations. What happens then with the ailanthus that there are? This Royal Decree contemplates an exception: those specimens that were already planted in private gardens, urban parks or botanical gardens before the entry into force of the rule. As for those planted in public gardens, administrations must progressively eliminate them. How to keep them at bay. Eradicating them is difficult and expensive. The MITECO report explains Cutting the tree is useless, as it stimulates the appearance of new shoots: the most effective way is to combine the mechanical removal of young seedlings with specific chemical treatments applied to the leaves or stumps. It is what is being done in the Montes de Málaga and the Sierra de Cazorla. Looking to the future, research points to biological control as a more sustainable alternative: the mite Aculus taihangensis has shown be an effective specific agent. In the United States, USDA investigates a soil fungusVerticillium nonalfalfae) that is offering promising results. In Xataka | Spain planted millions of eucalyptus trees to have cheap wood. 90 years later, we have confirmed that they are a green desert In Xataka | The Iberian Peninsula is being invaded: more than 1,200 exotic species have come to stay Cover | Marina Torres

“A green area without sufficient trees loses much of its ability to act”

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Extreme heat waves are an increasingly intense and long-lasting structural challenge and, faced with some cities turned into asphalt traps With a distinct lack of trees, the “urban climate shelter” concept has gained traction as emergency infrastructure. However, not just any green space acts as a heat shield, since recent research led by the University of Granada evidence that the design, morphology and, above all, the type of trees are critical factors, since a green area without dense coverage loses almost all of its effectiveness in reducing temperature. Size is not everything. The first results of the ACTERCA project, led by researcher David Hidalgo from the UGR, show the thermal behavior of green areas in the eight Andalusian capitals. To carry it out, they used a combination of satellites, climate modeling, artificial intelligence and thermal cameras, and the research concludes that the cooling capacity depends critically on large trees with dense canopies. These specific trees are the ones that really manage to reduce the environmental temperature between 3 and 5 ºC compared to areas dominated by impermeable pavements or the classic albero. That is why the key is not to create “green-looking” climate shelters, but to specifically design them to offer good shade and evapotranspiration with the most suitable trees. It is explained as follows by the UGR: These processes reduce the ambient temperature and significantly improve the thermal comfort of those who use these spaces. On the contrary, green areas with little tree cover lose much of their capacity to buffer heat, which shows that increasing the green area, by itself, does not guarantee effective protection against heat waves. It’s personalized. The study also highlights that urban design does not admit universal recipes, since in cities like Seville and Malaga, the main problem lies in the albedo and in Córdoba, the threat is building density and soil waterproofing. But if we go to Granada, the geometry of the historic neighborhoods, with narrow streets, offers greater thermal resilience than that of the new urban developments. Beyond temperature. Although lowering the thermometer is the most visible objective, science warns that the concept of “urban climate refuge” is still in its infancy and its definition lacks consensus. According to a systematic reviewcurrent urban planning is focusing almost exclusively on thermal comfort, leaving the potential of these spaces to promote urban biodiversity or long-term climate mitigation unexplored. In fact, it is pointed out that climate shelters must be conceived as multi-scalar solutions, since an isolated square is not enough, but an interconnected network is necessary. Along these lines, science proposes specific methodologies (tested in Seville and Malaga) to design shelter networks that classify spaces according to their use: places of temporary relief, areas for daily activity or areas of critical assistance during disasters. The real challenge. The biggest obstacle facing climate refuges is not thermodynamic, but social. And I know that an excellently air-conditioned park is of no use if those who suffer the most from the heat cannot access it or do not feel integrated. For example, an analysis at the IERMB on the Barcelona shelter network showed that there are deep intersectional vulnerabilitiessince factors such as economic income, gender and cultural origin determine who actually uses these spaces. This geographical and income inequality is also denounced by Greenpeace Spain, whose reporte warns of a serious lack of protection against heat waves in the most vulnerable sectors of the population, addressing access to thermal comfort as a fundamental right. We are behind. We know what works and how to implement it, but management is still one step behind. A review at European level which analyzed 97 initiatives in 88 cities revealed a notable institutional disconnection, since national climate adaptation strategies are rarely vertically integrated with local practices. Plans written on paper take too long to become trees planted on the asphalt. And the message we have on the table is that, to combat the extreme heat of the coming decades, cities do not simply need more square meters painted green on a map, but rather densely treed, intelligently distributed and, above all, socially fair urban ecosystems. Images | Andy Lee In Xataka | Climate change has a lethal side effect that we are only just discovering: it locks us in the house and prevents us from moving

A Catalan city council fined an individual for “cutting down some trees.” They have discovered an international network of illegal garbage trafficking

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The Civil Guard, Europol and the French Gendarmerie They just arrested four people for illegally bringing at least 46,000 tons of French waste into Catalonia. And the case has a crumb. Because when you talk about ‘international garbage trafficking’ you imagine trucks passing in the dark through lost ports in the Pyrenees and ships unloading in the middle of the night. But the truth is that no truck had to hide: they crossed the border between France and Spain without any problems. The papers were, “in theory”, in order. In theory? There was the kid of the matter and what confused the authorities. It made no sense to bring garbage into Catalonia from France because the Catalan fee (75 euros) is higher than the French one (69): although the overall costs are higher, the savings would be very small. The key was something else: that the trucks moved around Europe declaring that what they were carrying in their vats was “soil.” And that was what was new. The network had gone one step further and was no longer “selling” cheap landfills, it was selling completely reclassifying the waste. In this way, the garbage traveled to Spain as material and ended up buried in a fruit field. By using the term “land” everything was radically simplified: no one got paid, no file was activated. Do we have a legal loophole? Not exactly: the legislation is not only clear, but even in this case, the alerts were activated. Sant Esteve Sesrovires detected the irregular actions, opened a file, informed the Prosecutor’s Office and proposed a fine of 814,900 euros. Why concept? Due to land spills and felling of trees. It was when investigating the matter that the bottom of the matter was discovered. Why is it important? Because it is the third episode of the same pattern in four months: in March, a European macro operation with 337 detainees; in April, 167,000 tons of rubble and asbestos in Axarquía; now, this. And, above all, because Spanish legislation continues to be very lax. Our management requires “seriously damaging the balance of natural systems.” It must be modified (it is a European requirement), but we have not done so yet. Therefore, this case will be judged in terms of document falsification, tax crime, money laundering. That is to say, although environmental crimes are among the crimes charged, recent experience suggests that the conviction, if it comes, will come because of the paperwork. It is a good metaphor for a country that has built one of the most expensive tax systems in Europebut we have left it entirely in the hands of responsible self-declaration. Image | Zibik In Xataka | Europe has a problem with waste management, to the point that there are mafias illegally “exporting” it from Italy to Cuenca

“With increasingly frequent heat waves, more importance could be given to urban trees”

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The asphalt radiates heat, the air becomes dense and thermometers shoot up, and anyone who has walked through a big city in the middle of summer knows the abysmal difference between crossing a square concrete in full sun and take refuge under the canopy of a wooded park. The problem is that, for decades, modern urban planning has treated trees and green areas as mere “urban furniture” or a dispensable ornament to beautify the streets. A big change comes with the climate emergency that we have above our heads, and the scientific community points to the need to make a radical paradigm shift. They specifically propose that urban forests are no longer seen as something merely decorative, but rather that they must be protected and financed with the same priority as the electrical grid, sewage or telecommunications. Under investigation. A published essay At the beginning of the month in PLOS Climate has dotted the i’s after years of scientific evidence and launched a petition to governments to legislate on urban forests, considering them as essential infrastructure for climate resilience. This positioning, which functions as a roadmap, does not emerge from nowhere, but is directly aligned with the most serious warnings of recent years, including the IPCC 6th Assessment Report. In this document, the United Nations already pointed out sustainable urban planning and green infrastructure (such as parks, urban forests and vegetation covers) as key and irreplaceable adaptation and mitigation measures against global warming. Our shields. To understand why scientists urge legally shielding trees, just look at the physical data. As stated in a recent academic review on urban forests as “nature-based solutions”, the presence of forest mass In cities, it directly attacks two of the worst symptoms of climate change, which are heat waves and torrential rains. This is because trees mitigate the dreaded “urban heat island” effect through evapotranspiration and thermal shading, dramatically reducing surface temperatures. At the same time, they act like giant sponges by acting as critical structures in regulating stormwater, preventing catastrophic flooding, and acting as natural filters that improve air quality. Public health. The impact of trees goes far beyond thermodynamics, since various studies compiled in publications such as the one published in ScienceDirect have demonstrated that the lack of trees is, literally, a public health problem. For example, an article published in 2023 shelled the physiological, psychological and immunological mechanisms by which green cities transform our health, reducing chronic stress and improving our immune response. But the evidence on biodiversity and cardiovascular health is still impressive, since the evidence indicates that being exposed to diverse urban ecosystems reduces the incidence of heart disease. The experts. Daniel Jato, professor of Engineering and Environmental Management at the UIV, pointed out in statements to SMC that “in the current context, marked by increasingly frequent, intense and early heat waves, perhaps the role of urban trees could have been emphasized even more.” Images | sq lim In Xataka | César Franco, engineer: “In Spain we are not immune to the effects of climate change, we need to intensify conservation”

Spain planted millions of eucalyptus trees to have cheap wood. 90 years later, we have confirmed that they are a green desert

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If you usually move around the Cantabrian coast, you are surely already familiar with that long and stylized tree that is so abundant in its mountains. However, the eucalyptus already covers 30% of the forest area in areas such as northwest Spain. The omnipresence of the eucalyptus is the result of a forestry policy that started in the 40’s whose main objective was to supply the paper industry: it was cheap, it grew quickly, so it had all the potential to be the ideal candidate to repopulate unproductive forests. Decades later, a scientific study of the University of Santiago de Compostela and the CSIC has put numbers to suspicions: For the fauna, these plantations are almost a desert. The environmental cost of the ubiquitous eucalyptus. This research analyzed 240 areas of native Atlantic forest and eucalyptus forest in the Parque Natural das Fragas do Eume and They found an abysmal difference in richness and abundance of birds. In short: the more eucalyptus there is, the fewer birds live in that area and it is no coincidence. Mature eucalypts cannot replace mature trees as functional habitat and their foliage offers very limited support for birds. The most affected are those that eat insects and those that breed in the holes of old trees, such as the great woodpecker or the great tit. The eucalyptus does not generate enough insects to feed on, it has no undergrowth and it is cut down before it forms the cavities that these birds need to nest. On the less bad side, they have also found a fairly simple solution that does not involve eradicating the eucalyptus: simply letting wild vegetation grow in some areas, without clearing it. Why is it important. Because the role of forest birds is important in the balance of the ecosystem: they regulate insect pests, help in seed dispersal and act as an indicator of environmental health. In fact, the EU Birds Directive 2009/147 obliges member states to conserve bird populations in good condition and this study documents that this obligation is being breached in the most eucalyptus of Galicia and the Cantabrian coast. The situation is more complicated than it seems because already in 2017 the scientific committee of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition recommended include eucalyptus in the Catalog of Invasive Exotic Species in 2017, but the proposal was rejected due to the economy behind it: in Galicia this sector generates 2.5 billion euros annually in wood and paper pulp and employs more than 19,000 people, according to the report A Cadea Forestal-Madeira de Galicia 2025 prepared by XERA. It is a complete conflict of interest. Context. The eucalyptus arrived to the Iberian Peninsula in the 19th century for ornamental and medicinal purposes, but its true boom arrive with the repopulation plans of the Franco regime and the commercial demand for cellulose. Parque Natural das Fragas do Eume, the place where the analysis was carried out, is one of the last remaining coastal Atlantic forests on the Iberian Peninsula. There, eucalyptus plantations are currently the second largest type of forest: 1,340 hectares, only behind the native forest. But the species has already colonized its surroundings. In any case, the problem with eucalyptus trees is not local: in Portugal the eucalyptus already covers more than 800,000 hectares and is the most widespread forest species in the country. according to data from the National Forest Inventory of Portugal prepared by the Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas. It is also under scrutiny there due to its relationship with large fires. In fact, on a global scale the scientific community has been documenting for years the impact of eucalyptus on Mediterranean and temperate ecosystems outside its native Australia. In detail. Eucalyptus is a silent killer: it releases chemicals that prevent the growth of other plants under its canopy (allelopathy), which eliminates native shrubs and with them, the insects that feed the birds. Furthermore, since it is cut down every ten or fifteen years, it never ages enough to develop the holes needed for nesting by cave birds such as woodpeckers. The problem does not stay on land: dead eucalyptus leaves release oils and toxic compounds when they reach river courses, harming aquatic insects and amphibians that form the base of the river food chain. Yes, but. The damage to the diversity of the eucalyptus is a reality as undeniable as its socioeconomic importance: it is an economic vector and population fixation in these rural areas and eliminating or restricting its cultivation would have a notable impact in communities where alternatives are not abundant. Hence, the study itself does not call for its eradication, but for something simpler and more practical: leaving strips of vegetation uncut within the plantations so that the native flora can recover and the birds can return. It is a low cost solution that has already proven to be effective in other European contexts. On the other hand, there is the limitation that the study has been carried out in a single forest and is focused on birds. Not all species respond the same. In any case, science does not say that eucalyptus is evil, only that covering 30% of your forests with it has a serious biological toll. In Xataka | The Iberian Peninsula is being invaded: more than 1,200 exotic species have come to stay In Xataka | The Ebro is filling with brown prawns, an invasive species that we are going to find more and more on our plates. Cover | Flickr

30,000 liters/second while the fruit trees next door use well water

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Since February, there is a dam 14 kilometers from the Mediterranean Sea that releases water uninterruptedly. Until “30,000 liters per second“they leave the Rules Reservoirthey cross the lower plain of Guadalfeo and enter the sea. A few kilometers away, on the right bank of the river, there are thousands of hectares of tropical fruit trees. struggling with brackish water pumped from permanently overexploited wells. This is a textbook example of the “Spanish way of managing water.” But let’s be precise. Actually, the question “why are we letting that water go into the sea?” has several answers. The simplest and most obvious is that there is no more water in that swamp. Granada is coming off the best snow season in more than a decade. The high elevations of the Sierra Nevada had almost four meters of ‘white gold’ in February and that gold has begun to melt quickly. It is true that the massif has a complex network of irrigation ditches to try to ‘contain’ all that water and delay its arrival to the sea, but it is a matter of time before that water would have to leave Rules. A single piece of information explains it simply: since February the reservoir has received more than twice as much water as its operational capacity. In fact, the water is being ‘thrown’ into the sea because it is overflowing from its spillway. Is the second time in its history that this has happened. The other answer… is that, 22 years later and a cost overrun of more than 200 million eurosthe stored water still does not irrigate the fences 9,000 hectares of subtropical areas of the Tropical Coast. The pipelines are still under construction and, although some may be finished in the coming months, others have not even started. Government, Board, Provincial Council and City Councils have been throwing things at each other for years without solving the problem. And it is not clear that it will be resolved: now the Granada Provincial Council has reactivated the debatebut we must remember that elections are on the horizon. It is time to make promises of investments that no one knows if they will come to fruition. Meanwhile, the Kafkaesque system of subtropical agriculture continues to push the region to the limit. Because that is the worst news of all. Even in the best year in living memory, water is not enough. When we don’t have it, because we don’t have it. When we have it, because we have not built the pipeline that would allow us to use it for decades. Rules, as we said months agoit is a curiosity, but what a curiosity. Because we all know that Spain has a problem with water and we have to recognize that we have been very imaginative trying to solve it. But what we must not forget is that one of the great pending issues is to assume that managing this problem involves making decisions and carrying them out. Image | Cristina Borge In Xataka | In the midst of a drought, one of the swamps with the most water in Spain is in Andalusia. His secret: he can’t spend it

Italy planted millions of fir trees to protect the Alps. 90 years later they have discovered that biodiversity has been reduced by half

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The ecologist Aldo Leopold wrote a phrase that would end up defining all modern conservation in 1949: “maintaining each piece is the first rule of ecological intelligence.” He said it decades before science could measure it, but today studies like the one in the Alps Italians demonstrate the extent to which removing pieces of an ecosystem can seem invisible… until generations pass. A forest that seemed like a solution. In the 1930s, Italy by Benito Mussolini He decided that the best way to stabilize the Alps was to cover them with trees. The logic seemed impeccable: stop erosion, ensure wood for the future and display an image of order and national productivity. For this they chose norwegian sprucea fast-growing conifer, straight trunk and profitable wood. Thousands of hectares of alpine meadows and native forests were razed to plant dense, homogeneous rows of this species. For decades, that decision was sold as a forestry engineering success. From afar, those green forests looked healthy. But almost a century later, science has discovered that beneath that appearance a silent impoverishment was hidden. Ninety years later, the ecological bill. The studyled by ecologist Gianalberto Losapio and published in the journal Ecology, analyzed two areas of the Italian Prealps, near Lake Como: Monte Bisbino and Vicere Alp. There, the researchers They compared three habitats Neighbors: spruce plantations, native deciduous forests and traditional alpine grasslands. During five months of field work they identified 136 plant species and 201 arthropod species. The results were devastating. In plantations there was a median of only seven plant species per plot, compared to 18.5 in native forests and 37 in grasslands. Translated: more than 50% less diversity than in natural forests and almost 75% less than in the pastures. The problem of planting only one type of tree. The big mistake was believing that more trees automatically equaled more nature. Monoculture works well to produce wood, but It’s an ecological trap. When a landscape is filled with a single species, complexity disappears, because each plant, insect and microorganism plays a role in the ecosystem. Reducing this variety implies reducing resistance to diseases, pests or extreme phenomena. In the Italian Alps, diverse landscapes were replaced by uniform blocks coniferousand the result was a brutal simplification of the ecological network. What seemed like reforestation ended up being a substitution of biodiversity for productivity. A: Location of the study sites. B: Satellite image of the Monte Bisbino site. C: Satellite image of the Alpe del Vicerè site. Satellite images B and C represent the location of the fixed plots. “SM” = monoculture spruce plantations, “DF” = native deciduous forest and “GR” = grassland (prairie/mountain grassland). Map data: Google, Maxar Technologies Darkness as a silent weapon. The norway spruce It has a key characteristic: it is perennial. While beech, maple or chestnut trees lose their leaves and allow light to reach the ground in spring, the spruce maintains a closed canopy all year round. It is not trivial. In fact, that difference changes everything. Many alpine plants flower precisely in that window of early light, before the forest canopy closes. Under a spruce plantation, that opportunity disappears because the ground remains in constant shade and many species simply cannot survive. That is, it is not an open competition, it is a physical and permanent exclusion. The ground was also transformed. There is more, because the damage did not remain on the surface. Spruce needles acidify the soil as they accumulate over decades. The researchers found 25% more organic carbon in these plantations, although that did not mean greater fertility. It was just the opposite: organic matter decomposed more slowly, a sign of lower biological activity. Not only that. The balance between carbon and nitrogen also I was upsetindicating slower and less efficient nutrient cycling. In simple terms, the forest continued to accumulate remains because the system had lost the capacity to recycle them. It was a stuck ecosystem. A poorer and more fragile forest. Beyond the number of species, scientists measured something even more important: the “functional uniformity”that is, how ecological roles are distributed within the plant community. In spruce plantations, this index was 30% lower than in natural forests. That means less balance and more vulnerability. It’s not just that there are fewer species, but rather that entire functions within the system are missing. Some niches were left empty and many ecological jobs stopped being done. In other words, the forest is still there, but it works worse. It didn’t even create a new ecosystem. The researchers of the study said that one of the most revealing findings was verifying that these plantations they did not generate a new community adapted to the spruce. In fact, no specialized boreal species appeared nor a new equilibrium built. No, what they found was a version mutilated of the original forest: the same species as always, but less numerous and diverse. The spruce did not bring new life, it simply eroded what already existed. The insects resisted better, but with nuances. The only less alarming data appeared in the soil arthropods. Its diversity barely varied between plantations and natural forests. Reasons? Scientists believe that this due to their mobility and their ability to move between nearby habitats. Be that as it may, even here there is caution among experts. Soil chemistry suggests that microbial activity and the finer network of underground life have also changed, although they were not directly measured. The surface may give an image of partial recovery, but the subsoil continues to tell another story. The global lesson that comes too late. If you also want, what happened in Italy is not a historical rarity. Today, a good part of the global reforestation commitments continue exactly this model: plant quickly, cheaply and uniformly to meet climatic and accounting objectives. According to previous studies cited by the authorshalf of the areas committed to forest restoration in the world are monocultures of non-native species. Although it is an efficient formula in the short term … Read more

The biggest problem for Spanish olive trees is neither costs nor climate change: it is ‘ghost oil’

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Something smells bad in the olive oil market. We knew it for a long timebut it is now with the collapse of prices at source (almost 46%) that everyone has become nervous. The figures do not add up and the bill will not be paid by the large olive oil groups, but by the small producers. For this reason, on June 15, a COAG representative stood in front of the microphones and reported that 81% of olive oil Tunisian was entering Spain undercover. But how do you put 65,500 tons of oil under the radar? It has not been easy to determine, the truth is. But if the organization is right, the oil ship has more than one leak compromising its future. But it doesn’t have it. Always according to the COAGa good part of that oil comes from Portugal. But the ‘Portuguese way’ does not add up: with the data from the 2024-2025 campaign, Portugal produces between 160,000 and 195,000 tons of its own and imported only 3,406 of Tunisian oil. Those 3,406 tons cannot explain the 131,877 that it re-exports to Spain. Some part yes, but not all of it. And then? The problem seems different. It looks like ours, in fact. Because what COAG does seem to be right about is that a good part of the oil that entered the country did so under a special regime: that of active development. It is a formula of the Customs Code of the European Union that allows the importation of non-EU merchandise without tariffs or VAT as long as it is transformed and exported again. What the producers point out is that a good part of the oil that arrives in Spain to be “perfected” ends up being sold in the country without appearing in the statistics (marked, in fact, as community). The consumer does not notice it substantially in the price, but it is noticeable at the source. And a lot. But there is more. A few years ago, honey became a problem. Nobody really knew what they were eating in Europe. The key to this was to mix it up. Above all, because with completely insufficient regulation, it was enough to put “mix” so that there was nothing more to ask. This was attempted to be resolved with Directive (EU) 2024/1438 (the “Breakfast Guidelines“) which has not come into force in Spain until June 14, 2026. Among many other things, Brussels demands that the package states where what is inside comes from. Easy, clean, effective and… …non-existent for oil. The big problem, as almost always, is traceability. Not that we have problems, but that there is almost no real interest in doing it. As we have said many times, the Spanish agricultural market is a giant with feet of clay and now is the time to think if we want it to be something else. In Xataka | Something strange is happening with the price of olive oil and farmers have just denounced it: there are up to 2.8 billion at stake

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