Overview
- A commentary by Ariel Novoplansky and Hezi Yizhaq published February 6, 2026 in Trends in Plant Science disputes the eclipse-anticipation interpretation.
- The authors reexamined a 2025 Royal Society Open Science paper that reported Norway spruce electrical activity synchronizing about 14 hours before a partial eclipse.
- Lightning records show 20 strikes within roughly 45 kilometers of the site between October 22 and 25, 2022, including 18 during the 14-hour pre-eclipse window cited by the original study.
- They argue the eclipse dimmed light by only about 10.5% for two hours, a change comparable to routine cloud cover and unlikely to prompt anticipatory behavior.
- The critique notes the original dataset covered just three living trees and five stumps at a single site and calls for larger, replicated studies with stricter controls before invoking memory, anticipation, or forest-wide communication.