Researchers Create 'Cyberforests' to Predict Climate Change
New York: In the wake of global warming and considering the fact that it takes Mother Nature 1,000 years to grow a forest, researchers have created the world's first cyberforest to help predict the effect of climate change.
Researchers at Washington State University Vancouver created the first computer simulation that grows realistic forests down to the branches, leaves and roots of individual trees.
The model, which they called LES, uses recent advances in computing power to grow 100×100-meter stands of drought and shade tolerant trees that can then be scaled up to actual forest size.
“We call our model LES after the Russian word for forest,” said Nikolay Strigul, assistant professor at Washington State University (WSU) Vancouver, who grew up in Russia and came to the US in 2001.
Mellyn Llewellyn