MOST living organisms adapt their behavior to the rhythm of day and night.
A group of researchers in Austria conducted a study to study this pattern on plants, it turns out that trees do go to sleep too!
They study the day and night cycle of plants by[ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”show” ihc_mb_who=”2,3″ ihc_mb_template=”1″ ] measuring the sleep movement of two fully grown silver birch trees using a time series of laser scanning point clouds.
One tree was in Finland and the other in Austria, and both were monitored from dusk until morning on dry, windless nights in September, when daylight and nighttime are about equal.
The findings show that the branches and leaves sagged at night; they reached their lowest position a few hours before sunrise, and then perked up again during the wee hours of the morning.
The trees are 10 centimeters shorter without sunlight. The fact that some branches started returning to their daytime position before sunrise would suggest this internal circadian clock hypothesis is right.
The changes in the movement of plants could be closely connected with the water balance of individual cells, which is affected by the availability of light through photosynthesis, yet this warrant future exploration.
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