Discrimination of different tree crowns based on their 3D shapes is essential for a wide range of forestry applications, and, due to its complexity, is a significant challenge. This study presents a modified 3D shape descriptor for the perception of different tree crown shapes in discrete-return LiDAR point clouds. The proposed methodology comprises of five main components, including definition of a local coordinate system, learning salient points, generation of simulated LiDAR point clouds with geometrical shapes, shape signature generation (from simulated LiDAR points as reference shape signature and actual LiDAR point clouds as evaluated shape signature), and finally, similarity assessment of shape signatures in order to extract the shape of a real tree. The first component represents a proposed strategy to define a local coordinate system relating to each tree to normalize 3D point clouds. In the second component, a learning approach is used to categorize all 3D point clouds into two ranks to identify interesting or salient points on each tree. The third component discusses generation of simulated LiDAR point clouds for two geometrical shapes, including a hemisphere and a half-ellipsoid. Then, the operator extracts 3D LiDAR point clouds of actual trees, either deciduous or evergreen. In the fourth component, a longitude-latitude transformation is applied to simulated and actual LiDAR point clouds to generate 3D shape signatures of tree crowns. A critical step is transformation of LiDAR points from their exact positions to their longitude and latitude positions using the longitude-latitude transformation, which is different from the geographic longitude and latitude coordinates, and labeled by their pre-assigned ranks. Then, natural neighbor interpolation converts the point maps to raster datasets. The generated shape signatures from simulated and actual LiDAR points are called reference and evaluated shape signatures, respectively. Lastly, the fifth component determines the similarity between evaluated and reference shape signatures to extract the shape of each examined tree. The entire process is automated by ArcGIS toolboxes through Python programming for further evaluation using more tree crowns in different study areas. Results from LiDAR points captured for 43 trees in the City of Surrey, British Columbia (Canada) suggest that the modified shape descriptor is a promising method for separating different shapes of tree crowns using LiDAR point cloud data. Experimental results also indicate that the modified longitude-latitude shape descriptor fulfills all desired properties of a suitable shape descriptor proposed in computer science along with leaf-off, leaf-on invariance, which makes this process autonomous from the acquisition date of LiDAR data. In summary, the modified longitude-latitude shape descriptor is a promising method for discriminating different shapes of tree crowns using LiDAR point cloud data.

𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧) Tropical forests are the world’s most structurally complex ecosystems, providing key functions like biomass accumulation and harboring biodiversity. Yet climate-change poses a potential threat to the stability of these forests – tropical cyclones in the North Atlantic are projected to increase in intensity, leading to higher forest damage rates, potentially reducing their carbon sequestration and biodiversity potential. Hurricane Maria in 2017 was a possible portent of this dynamic, causing widespread devastation in Puerto Rico. How do forests resist such severe disturbances? Forests ecosystems contain ecological memory – physical and biological legacies from past natural disturbances like fires and windstorms – that can increase their resilience to future disturbances. In fire-prone forests, for example, prior exposure to non-severe fires has been shown to increase resistance to severe wildfires. Does the same mechanism apply in cyclone-prone tropical forests? In this dissertation, I examine how chronic exposure to non-hurricane winds impacts hurricane damage at the tree, stand, and landscape scales in Puerto Rico. Specifically, I ask – 1) Do chronic winds alter tree architecture to reduce their risk of stem-breaks? 2) Do chronic winds reduce forest stand structural complexity? 3) Do chronic winds and lower canopy structural complexity reduce individual tree and forest stand damage from Hurricane Maria? 𝐌𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐝𝐬) I used a novel combination of remote sensing, fieldwork, and high-resolution Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data collected in 2016 to address the above questions. In Chapter 1, I connected sub-meter resolution GPS data and 30 years of forest inventory with 0.03m resolution airborne LiDAR data to evaluate chronic wind impacts on the tree architecture and wind-risk of 124 forest trees of four key species. In Chapter 2, I used machine learning, remote-sensing and LiDAR data to predict the chronic wind impacts on the canopy height and structural complexity of ~20,000 0.28 ha forested sites across climatic, forest age and topographic gradients. In Chapter 3, I used pre-storm size and damage assessment field data for ~7,000 trees of 160 species across 14, 0.25 ha sites spanning an 800 m elevation gradient, alongside a remote-sensing dataset of ~12,000 forests to evaluate multiscale drivers – including canopy structural complexity – of individual, stand and landscape level hurricane damage. 𝐑𝐞𝐬𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬) At the individual tree scale, I found that long-lived species grew ~3.5 m shorter and ~ 4 m2 smaller crowns on average due to chronic wind-exposure, substantially reducing their estimated wind-risk, whereas short-lived species did not respond architecturally to chronic winds. At the stand and landscape scales, I found that chronic winds reduced canopy height by 2.12 m on average, and that structural complexity decreased substantially with forest age. I found that stand-level hurricane damage was primarily a function of increased canopy structural complexity, which in turn decreased with elevation; and that individual tree damage increased with stem size and varied only slightly by species, with short-lived species much more susceptible to damage. My findings suggest that tropical forest resistance to increasingly severe hurricanes depends largely on the physical structure of their canopies, and only then on adapted species-level life-history traits. The physical structure of forest canopies, in turn, changes substantially with exposure to non-hurricane winds. In old-growth forests in Puerto Rico, there is therefore evidence that ecological memory driven by exposure to non-hurricane winds can protect forests from severe wind disturbances. However, younger, more structurally complex forests may be potentially increasingly more vulnerable in a changing climate.

Thesis (MscAgric (Viticulture and Oenology))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / Under certain South African conditions, Redglobe develops a colour that is too dark and thus unacceptable for the Far Eastern markets. These markets require a pink colour instead of a dark red colour. The cultivation of grapes with an acceptable colour involves amongst other, canopy management practices. This generally includes the removal of leaves and/or lateral shoots. Hereby, the leaf area and the microclimatic conditions in the canopy are altered. The aim of this study was to test the usefulness of leaf and lateral shoot removal at different defoliation times after anthesis in order to obtain a pink coloured Redglobe crop. Other quality aspects, namely total soluble solids (TSS), total titratable acidity (TTA), berry mass and total yield, were also evaluated. A canopy management trial was conducted on six year old Redglobe vines with moderate vigour. The treatment design was a 2 x 3 x 4 factorial and involved two leaf removal (L) levels (L0 = 0% leaf removal; L33 = 33% leaf removal) in combination with three lateral shoot removal (LS) levels (LS0 = 0 % lateral shoot removal; LS50 = 50% lateral shoot removal; LS100 = 100% lateral shoot removal). Four defoliation times (DT) were selected: 36 (pea berry size), 69 (véraison), 76 (one week after véraison) and 83 (two weeks after véraison) days after anthesis (DAA). A total of 24 treatment combinations, replicated in four blocks, were applied. Generally, treatment combinations involving 33% leaf removal lowered the main shoot leaf area. Likewise, the lateral shoot leaf area was decreased by increasing levels of lateral shoot removal at any defoliation time. As expected, 33% leaf removal applied in combination with any level of lateral shoot removal, always resulted in a lower total vine leaf area compared to where 0% leaf removal was part of the treatment combination. Compensation reactions occurred and in this regard the main shoot leaf size increased due to 33% leaf removal applied at 1 week after véraison and 2 weeks after véraison. Treatment combinations involving lateral shoot removal increased the ratio of main shoot leaf area to the total leaf area. On the other hand, the main shoot leaf area percentage was lowered by the application of 33% leaf removal at 2 weeks after véraison compared to no leaf removal at the same defoliation time. It can therefore be assumed that the contribution of lateral shoot leaves to grape composition might have increased in cases where the main shoot leaf area was lowered at a later stage (e.g. 2 weeks after véraison). The bunches were visually evaluated and divided into classes from dark (class one) to light (class nine). This visual bunch evaluation showed that the mean bunch colour was in class three (lighter than class two) due to the defoliation time. The lateral shoot removal x leaf removal interaction resulted in a mean bunch colour that was in classes 2 and 3. However, within these classes, there was a tendency that bunch colour decreased for defoliation times later than pea berry size. The lateral shoot removal x leaf removal interactions showed that bunch colour was darker when the treatment combinations involved 0% leaf removal. The percentage of bunches with the desired colour was increased by application of the treatments at véraison, compared to the other defoliation times, and also with 50% lateral shoot removal and 100% lateral shoot removal compared to 0% lateral shoot removal. Biochemical analyses confirmed that increased levels of lateral shoot removal generally lowered the anthocyanin concentration regardless of defoliation time. A similar effect on TSS was observed, i.e. from véraison onwards, the application of 50% lateral shoot removal and 100% lateral shoot removal tended to lower TSS. The effect of these levels of lateral shoot removal at véraison was significant. The role of the lateral shoots in colour development and sugar accumulation is therefore emphasized. Furthermore, the special role that lateral shoots also play in berry development is illustrated in that berry mass tended to decrease when 100% lateral shoot removal in combination with 33% leaf removal and 100% lateral shoot removal in combination with 0% leaf removal were applied at véraison. This, together with the positive relationship obtained between grape colour and the lateral shoot leaf area:fruit mass ratio, accentuates the role of active leaf area during the ripening period. The possible effect of the microclimatic light environment on colour must also be considered. However, although the light intensity increased with increased levels of LS, the colour that was obtained was probably not associated with the differences in light intensity. It was found that it is possible to manipulate the colour of Redglobe grapes with defoliation treatments. However, the treatments that have a decreasing effect on grape colour also affected other quality parameters like TSS and berry size negatively. Although, it is possible to reduce the colour of Redglobe through the application of leaf and lateral shoot removal at different defoliation times, the question arises whether the treatment combinations used in this study are worthwhile to pursue because the mean bunch colour that was obtained was still too dark. However, it was possible to increase the percentage of bunches with the desired colour. Therefore, if such treatments are applied, it must be approached cautiously, keeping in mind that assimilate supply has to be sustained throughout the ripening period.

Globally, more than half of the world's population is living in urban areas and it is well accepted that human activities (e.g. climate warming, pollution, landscape homogenization) pose a multitude of threats to ecosystems. Largely, human-related impacts on biodiversity will hold consequences for larger ecological processes and research looking into human impacts on sensitive epiphytic lichen and moss communities is an emerging area of research. While seemingly small, lichen and moss communities exist on nearly every terrestrial ecosystem on Earth and contribute to whole-system processes (e.g. hydrology, mineral cycling, food web energetics) worldwide. To further examine human impacts on epiphytic communities, I conducted three studies examining urbanization and climate warming effects on epiphytic lichen and moss biodiversity and ecology. In the first study I revisited a historic urban lichen community study to assess how urban lichen communities have responded to regional air quality changes occurring over the last nearly two decades. I further investigated, for the first time, the biodiversity of urban tree canopy-dwelling lichen communities in a native coniferous tree species, Pseudotsuga menziesii. I found that urban parks and forested areas harbor a species rich community of lichens epiphytes. Further, I found evidence for the distinct homogenization of urban epiphytic lichen communities, suggesting that expanding beyond simplistic measures of biodiversity to consider community composition and functional biodiversity may be necessary when assessing the ecology and potential ecosystem services of epiphyte communites within urbanizing landscapes. Next, I present the first tall tree canopy study across a regional gradient of urbanization near Portland, Oregon, USA. I found that tall tree canopy epiphyte communities change dramatically along gradients of increasing urbanization, most notably by the transitioning of species functional groups from sensitive, oligotrophic species to a dominance of urban-tolerant, eutrophic species. The implications these dramatic shifts in species composition have on essential PNW ecosystem processes, like N-fixation and canopy microclimate regulation, is still not well understood and is difficult to formally evaluate. However, I find strong evidence that native conifer trees in urban areas may provide a diversity of essential ecosystem services, including providing stratified habitat for epiphyte communities and their associated micro arthropod communities and the scavenging of atmospherically deposited nutrients. Future work is needed to understand how losses in canopy N fixation and species with large biomass (both lichens and bryophytes) will affect nutrient and hydrologic cycling in the PNW region, which continue to undergo rapid growth and urbanization. The final chapter investigates the impacts of passive warming by Open Top Chambers (OTCs) in moss-dominated ecosystems located on the Western Antarctic Peninsula, an area of increasing climate warming. I compared species-specific temperature effects, moss canopy morphology, sexual reproductive effort and invertebrate communities between OTC and control moss communities for two moss species, Polytrichastrum alpinum and Sanionia uncinata, that make up over 65% of the terrestrial vegetative cover in the area. I found distinct reproductive shifts in P. alpinum under passive warming compared to controls. Moss communities under warming also had substantially larger total invertebrate communities than those in control moss communities, and invertebrate communities were significantly affected by moss species and moss reproductive effort. Further, substantial species-specific thermal differences among contiguous patches of these dominant moss species were revealed. These results suggest that continued warming will differentially impact the reproductive output of Antarctic moss species and is likely to dramatically alter terrestrial ecosystems dynamics from the bottom up. This combined work provides a diverse contribution to the field of epiphyte ecology and biology by providing new insights on how human impacts will affect epiphyte lichen and moss communities across diverse ecosystems, in light of a rapidly changing planet.

Rainfall interception is a primary control over the moisture input to a forested ecosystem through the partitioning of precipitation into throughfall, stemflow, and an evaporated component (i.e. the interception loss). Rainfall interception is a spatially and temporally varying process at multiple scales, but heterogeneity in interception processes are poorly understood and poorly described in the literature. We need to know how net precipitation varies in ecosystems because natural systems are driven by non-linear ecohydrological processes where mean values cannot capture localized effects or the cumulative consequences associated with an extremely heterogeneous input. In this thesis, we present two studies that investigate the heterogeneity of interception loss and throughfall in a forested catchment in the western Cascades range of Oregon. In one study, we examined the spatio-temporal patterns among point measurements of throughfall depth and isotopic composition to determine the cause of isotopic differences between throughfall and rainfall. Our results indicated that the residual moisture retained on the canopy from previous events plays a major role in determining the isotopic composition of the next event's throughfall. Differences between the isotopic composition of throughfall samples could indicate further partitioning of throughfall into various flow-paths from the canopy. The second project examined the question of how vegetation variability and terrain complexity drive interception loss heterogeneity at the whole-catchment scale. We applied a simple interception model to a watershed gridded at a 50 m resolution to investigate the relative importance of topographic and vegetative controls over the spatial variability of interception loss. We found that storm characteristics are crucial regarding the impact of spatial heterogeneities in vegetation and evaporation rates. In the Pacific Northwest climate, interception loss is not highly variable for the majority of the year because the annual precipitation is dominated by large storms with low interception losses. However, the net precipitation input to a watershed becomes extremely heterogeneous in the summer due to high interception loss variability. Summer interception loss could be an important control over the spatial variability of the availability of moisture, coinciding with when vegetation is most water-limited. / Graduation date: 2013

Les données de télédétection dans l'infrarouge thermique (IRT) sont une source indispensable d'information pour estimer les flux de surface et suivre le fonctionnement des agro-écosystèmes. Cependant, les mesures de température de surface sont sujettes à des effets directionnels très importants (présence de 'hot spot') pouvant entraîner une erreur allant jusqu'à une dizaine de degrés Celsius. Ils doivent être pris en compte en vue des applications opérationnelles. Le travail proposé ici vise à modéliser l'anisotropie directionnelle des couverts végétaux pour mettre au point des méthodes opérationnelles de correction des mesures satellitaires de température de surface. Il est largement motivé par les projets du CNES visant à élaborer une mission spatiale nouvelle combinant une haute résolution spatiale et des capacités fortes de revisite dans l'IRT. Deux étapes de travail ont été menées. La première repose sur l'utilisation du modèle déterministe de transfert Sol-Végétation-Atmosphère SCOPE (Soil Canopy Observation, Photochemistry and Energy fluxes), capable de simuler les radiances directionnelles dans l'optique et l'IRT. Dans ce manuscrit, il est validé par rapport à des mesures de terrain et sa capacité à simuler correctement les effets d'anisotropie démontrée. Il est ensuite utilisé pour étudier de façon systématique la sensibilité de l'anisotropie directionnelle à la structure de la canopée, à son état hydrique, au forçage météorologique et aux configurations angulaires solaire et de visée. Les conséquences en terme d'impact combiné des caractéristiques orbitales des satellites, de la position géographique des sites observés et de la date d'acquisition sur l'anisotropie sont discutées. La seconde étape vise à proposer un modèle paramétrique simplifié (dit RL). SCOPE est ici utilisé en tant que générateur de données. Le modèle RL se révèle robuste et capable de restituer avec succès les signatures directionnelles sur le plan géométrique (position du hot spot) comme pour l'amplitude des effets directionnels. Une comparaison avec le seul autre modèle paramétrique utilisé jusqu'alors en télédétection IRT (le modèle de Vinnikov) confirme les qualités du modèle RL, ce qui en fait un candidat potentiel pour les chaines de traitement des futures données satellitaires. / Remotely-sensed data in thermal infrared (TIR) are an essential source of information to estimate surface fluxes and to monitor the functioning of agro-ecosystems. However, surface temperature measurements are prone to directional effects ('hot spot' phenomenon)which may result in an error up to 10°C. They have to be taken into account in the framework of operational applications. The work proposed here aims at modelling the directional anisotropy of continuous vegetated canopies in order to develop operational methods for correcting land surface temperature measurements carried out by TIR satellites. This work is mainly motivated by the CNES projects aiming at developing a new TIR spatial mission combining both high spatial resolution and high revisit time capacities. Two steps were carried out. The first is based on the use of the deterministic SVAT model SCOPE (Soil Canopy Observation, Photochemistry and Energy fluxes), able to simulate directional radiances at top of canopy in both optical and TIR domains. In this thesis, it is validated against experimental measurements and its ability to successfully simulate TIR directional anisotropy demonstrated. Then it is used to study the sensitivity of anisotropy to canopy structure, water status of soil and vegetation, meteorological forcing and solar and observer angular configurations. The consequences of the combined features of satellites orbits, geographical position of the scanned sites and acquisition date on anisotropy are discussed. In the second part, we propose a simplified parametric model (called 'RL'). SCOPE is used as a data generator. The RL model is deemed suitable and able to correctly reproduce directional signatures both in terms of geometry (hot spot position) and amplitude of these effects. A comparison with the only one parametric model previously used in TIR remote sensing (Vinnikov's approach) confirms the good capacities of the RL model. The RL model is thus a potential candidate to the future satellite processing chains.

No description available.

To produce high quality paper, lignin should be removed from the pulp. Quantification of lignin concentrations using standard wet chemistry is accurate but time consuming and costly, thus not appropriate for a large number of samples. The ability of hyperspectral remote sensing to predict foliar lignin concentrations could be utilized to estimate wood lignin concentrations if meaningful relationships between wood and foliar chemistry are established. LAI (leaf area index) is a useful parameter that is incorporated into physiological models in forest assessment. Measuring LAI over vast areas is labour intensive and expensive; therefore, LAI has been correlated to vegetation indices using remote sensing. Broadband indices use average spectral information over broad bandwidths; therefore details on the characteristics of the forest canopy are compromised and averaged. Moreover, the broadband indices are known to be highly affected by soil background at low vegetation cover. The aim of this study is to determine foliar and wood lignin concentrations of Eucalyptus clones using hyperspectral lignin indices, and to estimate LAI of Eucalyptus clones from narrowband vegetation indices in Zululand, South Africa Twelve Eucalyptus compartments of ages between 6 and 9 years were selected and 5 trees were randomly sampled from each compartment. A Hyperion image was acquired within ten days of field sampling, SI and LAI measurements. Leaf samples were analyzed in the laboratory using the Klason method as per Tappi standards (Tappi, 1996-1997). Wood samples were analyzed for lignin concentrations using a NIRS (Near Infrared Spectroscopy) instrument. The results showed that there is no general model for predicting wood lignin concentrations from foliar lignin concentrations in Eucalyptus clones of ages between 6 and 9 years. Regression analysis performed for individual compartments and on compartments grouped according to age and SI showed that the relationship between wood and foliar lignin concentration is site and age specific. A Hyperion image was georeferenced and atmospherically corrected using ENVI FLAASH 4.2. The equation to calculate lignin indices for this study was: L1R= ~n5il: A'''''y . 1750 AI680 The relationship between the lignin index and laboratory-measured foliar lignin was significant with R2 = 0.79. This relationship was used to calculate imagepredicted foliar lignin concentrations. Firstly, the compartment specific equations were used to calculate predicted wood lignin concentrations from predicted foliar lignin concentrations. The relationship between the laboratorymeasured wood lignin concentrations and predicted wood lignin concentrations was significant with R2 = 0.91. Secondly, the age and site-specific equations were used to convert foliar lignin concentration to wood lignin concentrations. The wood lignin concentrations predicted from these equations were then compared to the laboratory-measured wood lignin concentrations using linear regression and the R2 was 0.79 with a p-value lower than 0.001. Two bands were used to calculate nine vegetation indices; one band from the near infrared (NIR) region and the other from the short wave infrared (SWIR). Correlations between the Vis and the LAI measurements were generated and . then evaluated to determine the most effective VI for estimating LAI of Eucalyptus plantations. All the results obtained were significant but the NU and MNU showed possible problems of saturation. The MNDVI*SR and SAVI*SR produced the most significant relationships with LAI with R2 values of 0.899 and 0.897 respectively. The standard error for both correlations was very low, at 0.080, and the p-value of 0.001. It was concluded that the Eucalyptus wood lignin concentrations can be predicted using hyperspectral remote sensing, hence wood and foliar lignin concentrations can be fairly accurately mapped across compartments. LAI significantly correlated to eight of the nine selected vegetation indices. Seven Vis are more suitable for LAI estimations in the Eucalyptus plantations in Zululand. The NU and MNU can only be used for LAI estimations in arid or semi-arid areas. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.

Human pressure on forest resources increased significantly during the past decades through land use and land use change, especially in the tropics where forest clearing is a major source of CO2 release in the atmosphere. Consequently, forests are the focus of international environmental policies and discussions aiming to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (i.e. REDD+). The capacity of participating countries to regularly provide accurate forests C stocks measurements at a national scale thus represents an important challenge to address. In dense forests, generally only the above ground biomass (AGB) is measured as it accounts for more than 50% of total C stocks. However, important gaps remain at each scale of measurement, i.e. from felled tree to regional mapping, with the resulting errors propagation through these different scales being probably the most concerning issue.<p><p>In the present work, we propose to address these issues by using a multi-scale approach in order to improve our global understanding of AGB variations in dense tropical forests of Central Africa. In particular, we studied (i) forest AGB prediction from remote-sensing textural analysis, (ii) the potential role of largest trees as predictor of the entire forest-stand AGB and (iii) intra- and inter-individual radial variation of wood specific gravity (WSG, i.e. oven-dry mass divided by its green volume) and its potential consequences on the estimation of the AGB of the tree. <p>First, we analyzed the potential use of textural analysis to predict AGB distribution based on very high spatial resolution satellite scenes. In particular, we used the Fast Fourier Transform Ordination (FOTO) method to predict AGB from heterogeneous forest stands of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Here, based on 26 ground plots of 1-ha gathered from the field, plus a successful combination of Geoeye and Quickbird contrasted scenes, we were able to predict and to map AGB with a robust model (R² = 0.85; RMSE = 15%) based on textural gradients. <p>Secondly, the research of AGB indicators was focused on the dissection of the role played by largest trees. Here we found largest trees not only hold large share of forest carbon stock but they contain the print of most of forest-stand structure and diversity. Using a large dataset from western Cameroon to eastern DRC, we developed a non-linear model to predict forest carbon stock from the measurement of only a few large trees. We found the AGB of the 5 % largest stems allow to predict the AGB of the entire forest-stand yielding an R² of 0.87 at a regional scale. Focusing on largest trees species composition, we also showed only 5 % of species account for 50 % of total AGB.<p>In the end, we investigated inter- and intra-individual WSG variations. Despite recognized inter- and intra-specific variations along the radial axis, their ecological determinants and their consequences on trees aboveground biomass assessments remain understudied in tropical regions. To our knowledge, it has never been investigated in Africa. Using a 3-D X-Ray scanner, we studied the radial WSG variation of 14 canopy species of DRC tropical forests. Wood specific gravity variance along the radial profile was dominated by differences between species intercepts (~76%), followed by the differences between their slope (~11%) and between individual cores intercept (~10%). Residual variance was minimal (~3%). Interestingly, no differences were found in the comparison of mean WSG observed on the entire core and the mean WSG at 1-cm under the bark (intercept ~0; coefficient = 1.03). In addition, local values of WSG are strongly correlated with mean value in the global data base at species level. <p><p>I deeply believe these results favor the development of promising tools to map and to estimate accurately the AGB of tropical forest-stands. The information provided by largest trees on the entire forest-stand is particularly interesting both for developing new sampling strategies for carbon stocks monitoring and to characterize tropical forest-stand structure. In particular, our results should provide the opportunity to decrease current sampling cost while decreasing its main related uncertainties, and might also favor an increase of the current sampling coverage. <p> / Doctorat en Sciences agronomiques et ingénierie biologique / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Elemental carbon (EC), a product of incomplete combustion of fossil fuels and biomass, contributes to climate warming and poor air quality. In urban areas, diesel fuel trucks are the main source of EC emissions from mobile sources. After emission, EC is deposited to receptor surfaces via two main pathways: precipitation (wet deposition) and directly as particles (dry deposition). Urban trees may play an important role in removing EC from the atmosphere by intercepting and delivering it directly to the soil. The goal of this research was to quantify the magnitude of EC retention in leaf waxes (in-wax EC) and EC fluxes to the soil via leaf litterfall in the City of Denton, Texas. Denton is a rapidly growing urban location in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area. A foliar extraction technique was used to determine EC retention in leaf waxes. Foliar samples were collected monthly, from April through July, from pairs of Quercus stellata (post oak, n=10) and Quercus virginiana (live oak, n = 10) trees. Samples were rinsed with water and chloroform in a two-step process to determine EC retained in leaf waxes. A Sunset OC/EC aerosol analyzer was utilized to analyze the EC content of extracts filtered onto quartz-fiber filters. From April through July, leaf litter was collected bi-weekly under 35 trees (20 post oak, 15 live oak), and oven dried to determine dry weight. EC retained by tree canopies was estimated by multiplying in-wax EC by canopy leaf area index, while EC flux to soil was estimated by multiplying in-wax EC by leaf litterfall mass. This study shows that through retention of EC in leaf waxes, urban tree canopies represent important short-term sinks for soot in urban areas.