Two conservation goals of the early 20th century, extensive reforestation and reduced wildfire through fire exclusion, may have contributed to declining pollinator abundance as forests became denser and shrub covered. To examine how forest structure affects bees we selected 5 stands in each of 7 forest types including: cleared forest; dense young pines; thinned young pines; mature open pine wit...

A set of land-cover pattern maps for the Gunma Prefecture was produced to help understand and assess the ecological implications of regional spatial patterns. Covering a total area of approximately 6,360 square kilometers, about 77 percent of this area can be regarded as “vegetation cover”. The land cover map was derived from the supervised classification process with the combined use of TM, SP...

Defining "forest land" is a complex issue and has been discussed for decades. Today, a confusing multitude of definitions of forest land are in use making comparison of forest area figures difficult. But currently, comparability is receiving much attention when it comes to install market mechanisms for ecosystem services. Minimum crown cover is among the most frequently employed criteria of for...

The cover image is based on the Research Article Slow development of vocal sequences through ontogeny in wild chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes verus) by Tatiana Bortolato et al., https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.13350 Image Credit: Liran Samuni, Tai Chimpanzee Project.

forest classification on the basis of satellite images is a promising technique both for primary map production and for map updating and forest monitoring. for accurate for-est classification into three classes, using mapping by canopy cover density “high spatial resolution satellite images have to be used in order to obtain the required spatial detail” [schneider, 1999]. at the same time, the ...

Dramatic political and economic changes in Eastern European countries following the dissolution of the “Eastern Bloc” and the collapse of the Soviet Union greatly affected land-cover and land-use trends. In particular, changes in forest cover dynamics may be attributed to the collapse of the planned economy, agricultural land abandonment, economy liberalization, and market conditions. However, ...

Classifying land cover is perhaps the most common application of remote sensing, yet classification at frequent temporal intervals remains a challenging task due to radiometric differences among scenes, time and budget constraints, and semantic differences among class definitions from different dates. The automatic adaptive signature generalization (AASG) algorithm overcomes many of these limit...

The tropical deforestation literature advocates multi-agent enquiry in recognition that key dynamics arise from inter-agent interactions. Studies of tropical forest-cover gain have lagged in this respect. This article explores the roles and key aspects of interactions shaping natural forest regeneration and active reforestation in Eastern Panama since 1990. It employs household surveys of agric...

A forest is a biotic community predominated by trees and woody vegetation that are signifi cantly taller, greater, thicker, and deeper than other vegetation types and generally covers a large area (Chang, 2003). Forests cover approximately 26.2% of the world, with 45.7% of Latin America and the Caribbean being covered, 35% of East Asia and the Pacifi c, and 35% of the European Union. Canada and...