No description available.

No description available.

Dry cloud forests on the western slopes of the Peruvian Andes were mapped from aerial photographs, 306 stands being recorded from 4^o50'S to 12^o47'S. The frequency and area of these stands, as well as most parameters analyzed in the eight sample sites, show a steep decreasing latitudinal trend and are strongly correlated with the latitudinal rainfall gradient. The mean area of the forest stands decreases from 115 ha in northern Peru to 42 ha in central Peru. The number of species recorded decreases along the study area from 52 to 13 and there is a well defined latitudinal sequence of species. Mean density and basal area per hectare of stems ≥10 cm gbh decreases from 2995 individuals and 79.91 m^2 in the north to 500 individuals and 17.27 m^2 in central Peru. The vertical structure is similar throughout the study area, emergent trees reaching on average 22 m and the main canopy 12 m in the north and 13 m and 7 m respectively in central Peru. Regeneration is very active in northern Peru. Juveniles have been found for a high proportion of species, including all common ones, and most species show a logarithmic decline in number of stems with increasing girth. There is a steep decreasing trend towards central Peru, where few species regenerate, mostly shrubs. The pattern found may be the result of the combined effect of grazing and a climatic change towards drier conditions evidenced in the regeneration pattern of most sites.

Patterns and rates of nutrient input to the forest floor in litterfall, throughfall and stemflow were investigated in plots of low and high abundance of ectomycorrhizal species. The aim of the study was to examine the comparative advantage of the ectomycorrhizal species in nutrient acquisition and cycling on nutrient-poor soils in Korup. Litterfall was similar in both forests with annual estimates of 9.00 and 8.33 t ha-1 yr-1 for LEM and HEM forests respectively. Litterfall distribution followed a mono-modal pattern, with peaks in the dry season in both forests and the HEM forest showing stronger seasonality. The concentrations N, K and Ca in total litterfall were higher in the LEM forest while those of P and Mg were higher in the HEM forest. The bulk of nutrients in total litterfall was in leaf litter with the reproductive fractions having the highest concentrations of nutrients. Ectomycorrhizal species showed lesser internal redistribution of nutrients than non-ectomycorrhizal species which resulted in their higher leaf litter concentrations of nutrients. Breakdown of litter was relatively faster in the LEM forest with an annual decomposition constant (KL) of 3.21 compared to 2.43 for the HEM forest. The reproductive fractions had relatively higher annual decomposition constants of 8.20 and 4.27 in the LEM and HEM forests respectively compared to the other fractions. The overall element mobility in decomposing leaf litter was similar in both forests and in the following order: Mg>K>Ca>P>N. Mineralization of N, P and K in the decomposing leaf litter was similar in both forests and higher in the HEM forest for Mg and Ca. Throughfall was 96.6% and 92.4%, and stemflow 1.5% and 2.2%, of gross rainfall in LEM and HEM forests respectively. Considerable amounts of Ca, Mg and P were brought to the forest canopy in gross rainfall (24-45% of total input through this route) with higher amounts of K and Ca leached from plant parts by the rainwater. The amounts of P, K and Ca in stemflow and throughfall were of the same magnitude in both forests with the enhancement of N slightly higher in the LEM forest and Mg in the HEM forest.

No description available.

There is growing interest in airborne lidar for forest carbon accounting and precision forestry purposes. Airborne lidar systems offer a cost-effective, versatile, operationally flexible and robust sampling tool for forest managers. The objective of this study was to develop and test lidar canopy surface enhancement and segmentation processes for estimating dominant above-ground biomass (DAB) in a harvested eucalypt forest on the Central Coast of New South Wales (Australia). The Crown Infill, Trim and Smooth (CITS) process, incorporating a series of filters, algorithms, and selective multi-stage smoothing, was used to enhance lidar canopy surfaces prior to segmentation. Canopy segmentation was achieved using a vertical crown template approach termed the Spatially and Morphologically Isolated Crest (SMIC) process. SMIC delineates dominant tree crowns by detecting elevated crown crests within a 3D lidar canopy surface. Consolidated crown units constitute the basic sampling, analysis and reporting units for wall-to-wall forest inventory. The performance, sensitivity and limitations of these procedures were evaluated using a combination of simulated forest models and actual lidar forest data. Automated crown polygons were used as a sampling template to extract dominant tree height values which were converted to DAB estimates via height-to-biomass relationships derived from field survey and on-site destructive sampling. Results were compared with field based tree height and biomass estimates. Compared against a manually derived crown map from a 2ha field plot, canopy segmentation results revealed a producer???s accuracy of 76% and overall accuracy of 67%. Results indicated a trend toward greater crown splitting (fragmentation) as trees increase in age, height, stem diameter and crown size. Extracted dominant tree height values were highly correlated with ground survey height estimates (r2 0.95 for precision survey and r2 0.69 for standard survey). There was also no significant difference between SMIC and manual crown height estimates. SMIC units overestimated ground-based DAB by 5%; this increased to 36% with the inclusion of segmentation errors. However, SMIC estimation of total plot above-ground biomass (AGB) was within 9% of the ground-based estimate. Results are encouraging considering the mixed-species, multi-aged composition of the forest, and the combined effects of SMIC segmentation and lidar height errors.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Nevada, Reno, 2007. / "August 2007." Includes bibliographical references. Online version available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D. - Watershed Management)--University of Arizona. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 171-192).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Goteborg University, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis(M.S.)--Auburn University, 2005. / Abstract. Includes bibliographic references.