Forest fires are important contributors of C, N, and Hg to the atmosphere. In the fall of 2011, a large wildfire occurred in northern Minnesota and we were able to quickly access the area to sample the forest floor and mineral soil for C, N, and Hg pools. When compared with unburned reference soils, the mean loss of C resulting from fire in the forest floor and the upper 20 cm of mineral soil w...

Nowaday, the localisation of vegetation using satellite images is a classical application of remote sensing. More precisely, using very high spatial resolution images (such as IKONOS, Quickbird or Spot Vegetation) allow to accuratly localise forest border. This allow for example to follow the evolution of forest surface in order to prevent deforestation. But to correctly survey biodiversity we ...

Little information is available regarding red wood ant (RWA; Formica rufa group) impacts on soil carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) cycling in forest ecosystems. We found that RWA mound density (number per ha) was linked to forest tree species composition, slope aspect, and canopy closure. The size of RWA mounds was positively correlated with successional age of the stands. C and N concentrations of m...

In managed landscapes, conservation planning requires effective methods to identify high-biodiversity areas. The objective of this study was to evaluate the potential of airborne laser scanning (ALS) and forest estimates derived from satellite images extracted at two spatial scales for predicting the stand-scale abundance and species richness of birds and beetles in a managed boreal forest land...

Habitat mapping as defined by plant communities is a common component of the planning and monitoring for conservation management. This study provided the test of two classifiers for producing the vegetation mapping in a tropical island. The selected area is Prathong Island, Phang Nga Province, Southern part of Thailand. The performance of the support vector machines (SVMs) image classification ...

water erosion causes severe soil damage in northern forests of iran which is associated with different rut depths in skid trails. the aim of this study was to assess rutting and soil displacement on skid trails to mitigate water erosion. therefore the research was carried out in eight parcels of district no 3 of shafarood forest in the north of iran. in order to evaluate the amount of erosion i...

Coarse woody debris (CWD) biomass was measured and mapped in burned, clearcut, and intact lodgepole pine forests in two areas of the Rocky Mountains of Wyoming: the Medicine Bow National Forest (MBNF) and Yellowstone National Park (YNP). In addition, the amount of CWD consumed or converted to charcoal by fire was estimated in a recently burned stand in YNP. A spatially explicit simulation model...

A new simple airborne method based on wide optics camera is developed for leaf area index (LAI) estimation in coniferous forests. The measurements are carried out in winter, when the forest floor is completely snow covered and thus acts as a light background for the hemispherical analysis of the images. The photos are taken automatically and stored on a laptop during the flights. The R value of...

The influence of Cracow's urban pollution on small forest ecosystems was studied during 1998-2000. Seven sites located at different distances from the Cracow conurbation and from busy road were selected. Two sites were situated 26 and 31 km from Cracow town along an eastern transect, the other five-3, 8, 14, 26 and 35 km respectively, from Cracow-along a southern transect. At the beginning of S...