BACKGROUND AND AIMS Growth in trunk height in canopy openings is important for saplings. How saplings increase height growth in canopy openings may relate to crown architectural constraints. Responses of crown development to canopy openings in relation to trunk height growth were studied for saplings (0.2-2.5 m tall) of eight tropical submontane forest tree species in Indonesia. The results of ...

The spaceborne ESA-mission CHRIS (Compact High Resolution Imaging Spectrometer) on-board PROBA-1 (Project for On-board Autonomy) delivers multi-directional data sets that contain spectral, directional, spatial and multi-temporal information. CHRIS/PROBA data have been acquired over two well documented test sites in Switzerland (Swiss National Park (SNP) and Vordemwald (VOR) since 2003 and allow...

Gap characteristics and effects of gaps on plasticity of Fargesia qinlingensis and tree regeneration were studied under canopy, and in small, medium, and large gaps in a mixed hardwood-conifer forest in the Qinling Mountains, China. Gap formation was mainly tree snapping (40%). Gapmakers were dominated by Betula albosinensis and Abies fargesii (85%). Gap area ranged from 23.8 to 594.2 m and ave...

Detailed one-dimensional multilayer biosphereatmosphere models, also referred to as CANVEG models, are used for more than a decade to describe coupled watercarbon exchange between the terrestrial vegetation and the lower atmosphere. Within the present study, a modified CANVEG scheme is described. A generic parameterization and characterization of biophysical properties of Amazon rain forest can...

Whilst most hedgerow functions depend upon hedgerow structure and hedgerow network patterns, in many ecological studies information on the fragmentation of hedgerows network and canopy structure is often retrieved in the field in small areas using accurate ground surveys and estimated over landscapes in a semi-quantitative manner. This paper explores the use of radar SAR imagery to (i) detect h...

Canopy characterization is a key factor to improve pesticide application methods in tree crops and vineyards. Development of quick, easy and efficient methods to determine the fundamental parameters used to characterize canopy structure is thus an important need. In this research the use of ultrasonic and LIDAR sensors have been compared with the traditional manual and destructive canopy measur...

At the Wind River Canopy Crane Facility in southeastern Washington State, USA, we examined phenotypic variation between upper- and lower-canopy branches of old-growth Thuja plicata J. Donn ex D. Don (western red cedar). Lower-canopy branches were longer, sprouted fewer daughter branches per unit stem length and were more horizontal than upper-canopy branches. Thuja plicata holds its foliage in ...

We present an application of 3D canopy modelling for assessing the structural accuracy of complex 3D structural models of Sitka spruce. Such models can be used to simulate canopy reflectance at the landscape-scale with a minimum number of assumptions. Typically, however, the underlying canopy structural models require a large number of parameters, many of which are hard to measure and so must b...

BACKGROUND Severe canopy-removing disturbances are native to many temperate forests and radically alter stand structure, but biotic legacies (surviving elements or patterns) can lend continuity to ecosystem function after such events. Poorly understood is the degree to which the structural complexity of an old-growth forest carries over to the next stand. We asked how pre-disturbance spatial pa...

Disturbance history was reconstructed across an 11300 ha managed longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.) landscape in southwestern Georgia, USA. Our specific objectives were to: (i) determine forest age structure; (ii) reconstruct disturbance history through the relationship between canopy disturbance, tree recruitment and growth; and (iii) explore the relationship between canopy disturbance and ...