The Cycling Fans Who Watch the Trees

By Joshua Robinson

When all of Belgium tunes in to watch the Tour of Flanders bicycle race, Pieter De Frenne watches the trees.

They’re only on screen for as long as it takes the peloton to whiz by, but it’s enough for De Frenne to recognize them, log them, and gather a tiny insight into how the planet is changing. That’s because De Frenne is a pro cyclist in his dreams and a pro botanist in real life. And along with a team from the University of Ghent, he figured out that somewhere in Belgium’s annual festival of sore legs, cobbled hills and heady beers, there was climate science to be done. 

It turns out that three decades’ worth of footage from the Tour of Flanders, whose 105th edition is this Sunday, contained a trove of botany data. By identifying specific trees along key points of the race route, De Frenne’s team of researchers was able to log their leaf cover, April after April, and see how dozens of species were reacting to climate change.

Read the full article on wsj.com