In this thesis, the utility of airborne laser scanning (ALS) for monitoring vegetation of relevance for the environmental sector was investigated. The vegetation characteristics studied include measurements of biomass, biomass change and vegetation classification in the forest-tundra ecotone; afforestation of grasslands; and detection of windthrown trees. Prediction of tree biomass for mountain...

Recently, a wide range of quantitative research on the identification of environmental flow requirements (EFRs) has been conducted. However, little focus is given to EFRs to maintain multiple ecosystem services in oasis areas. The present study quantifies the EFRs in oasis areas of Tarim Basin, Xinjiang, Northwest China on the basis of three ecosystem services: (1) maintenance of riverine ecosy...

In this data paper, we describe the dataset of the Global Change, Altitudinal Range Shift and Colonization of Degraded Habitats in Mediterranean Mountains (MIGRAME) project, which aims to assess the capacity of altitudinal migration and colonization of marginal habitats by Quercus pyrenaica Willd. forests in Sierra Nevada (southern Spain) considering two global-change drivers: temperature incre...

Montane and subalpine grasslands are prominent, but poorly understood, features of the Rocky Mountains. These communities frequently occur below reversed tree lines on valley floors, where nightly cold air accumulation is spatially coupled with fine soil texture. We used field experiments to assess the roles of minimum temperature, soil texture, grass competition, and ungulate browsing on the g...

Land use change is a considerable representation of mutual effect between human and natural activities. Northern Shanxi located in the northern agro pastoral ecotone, which land pattern changes violently. This paper focuses on dynamic characteristics cultivated grassland ecotone from 2000 to 2015, explores main driving factors their change. It can provide support for planning management relevan...

Mountain ecosystems are particularly sensitive to climate change, which in part causes encroachment of woody plants at the treeline ecotone, with repercussions on advance and ecosystem carbon balance. Yet, studies investigating long-term trends radial growth as well year-to-year response several tree shrub species change scarce, especially Pyrenees where dendroecological hitherto critically lac...