Web applications for science and society
Small interactive tools that turn forest research into something you can try yourself: in the browser, on any phone, with nothing to install.
Science is easier to talk about when people can play with it. These web applications translate results from my research into short interactive experiences: for poster sessions and lectures, for students, and for anyone who wonders why some trees survive a drought and others do not.
Escape the Death Spiral
Keep a European beech or a Norway spruce alive through the real droughts of 2015, 2018–2020 and 2022, and the hotter years that follow. Tap clouds to make it rain into the soil, squash bark beetles before they reach the crown, and watch drought memory build up year after year.
When your tree dies, the game tells you why: the predisposing dry years, the inciting drought and the contributing pests. This is Manion’s decline spiral, the same logic behind the drought-mortality framework I developed for the forest model ForClim.
Made for the poster Unravelling the death spiral at the 48th New Phytologist Symposium Forest interactions, Leysin, October 2026. Short link: ginamarano.com/game
More tools are on the way. If you would like to use one of these applications in teaching or outreach, get in touch.