The objective of this study is to test the feasibility of nation-wide medium footprint airborne laser scanning (ALS) data for derivation of forest parameters. The comparison of canopy closure as one important parameter for many forest functions derived from ALS data and aerial photo interpretation was conducted. The present study was carried out in the framework of the Swiss National Forest Inv...

The potential of EO-1 Hyperion data combined with an inverted geometric-optical model for the retrieval of forest structural variables in the Longmenhe broadleaved forest natural reserve, located in the Three Gorges region (China), is studied in this paper. Based on the principle of Li-Strahler geometric-optical model, we retrieve the per-pixel reflectance as being a linear combination of four ...

Physical and functional properties of foliage were measured at a variety of microsites in a broad-leaved Nothofagus fusca (Hook. f.) Ørst. canopy. The light climate of the foliage at these sites was monitored for 39 days in the late spring and early summer with in situ sensors. Foliage nitrogen content (N), mean leaf angle, and gas exchange characteristics were all correlated with the amount of...

Coarse woody debris (CWD) and canopy gaps are thought to be important structural components that influence forest ecosystem processes, yet few studies have assessed whether these features interact to influence decay dynamics, and we know of none that does so under controlled experimental canopy gap conditions. By manipulating forest structure to create canopy openings, we tested whether canopy ...

Photoinhibition reduces photosynthetic productivity; however, it is difficult to quantify accurately in complex canopies partly because of a lack of high-resolution structural data on plant canopy architecture, which determines complex fluctuations of light in space and time. Here, we evaluate the effects of photoinhibition on long-term carbon gain (over 1 d) in three different wheat (Triticum ...

This paper presents the theoretical basis of the algorithm designed for the generation of leaf area index and diurnal course of its sunlit portion from NASA's Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) onboard NOAA's Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR). The Look-up-Table (LUT) approach implemented in the MODIS operational LAI/FPAR algorithm is adopted. The LUT, which is the heart of the appr...

BACKGROUND AND AIMS The distribution of photosynthetic enzymes, or nitrogen, through the canopy affects canopy photosynthesis, as well as plant quality and nitrogen demand. Most canopy photosynthesis models assume an exponential distribution of nitrogen, or protein, through the canopy, although this is rarely consistent with experimental observation. Previous optimization schemes to derive the ...

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...

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...

Lidar data provide accurate measurements of forest canopy structure in the vertical plane however current lidar sensors have limited coverage in the horizontal plane. Landsat data provide extensive coverage of generalized forest structural classes in the horizontal plane but are relatively insensitive to variation in forest canopy height. It would therefore be desirable to integrate lidar and L...