As one of 22,500 attendees, HortiBonn’s Simon Swatek presented first results from the temp-2-stress project at the 2026 EGU General Assembly in Vienna as a poster presentation. The preliminary results focus on a unique forest irrigation experiment in the Hessisches Ried (“SiZuRi”), where soil moisture is continuously monitored. We conduced 14 UAV flights with RGB, thermal and multispectral camera systems and a four-component net radiation system over the experiment and found that daily averages of evapotranspiration, evaporative fraction and a vegetation health index (NDRE) were consistently higher in irrigated plots than in non-irrigated control plots, particularly for the upper canopy layer. Simon conveyed these first temp-2-stress finding to the broad EGU poster audience and engaged in interesting discussions.
