BACKGROUND Mapping tropical forest structure is a critical requirement for accurate estimation of emissions and removals from land use activities. With the availability of a wide range of remote sensing imagery of vegetation characteristics from space, development of finer resolution and more accurate maps has advanced in recent years. However, the mapping accuracy relies heavily on the quality...

Old-growth forests are valuable sources of ecological, conservation, and management information, yet these ecosystems have received little study in New England, due in large part to their regional scarcity. To increase our understanding of the structures and processes common in these rare forests, we studied the abundance of downed coarse woody debris (CWD) and snags and live-tree size-class di...

This paper reviews and discusses the literature pertaining to a proposed ecological study of a catastrophic dying of native Metrosideros (Myrtaceae) forest which occurred on windward East Maui in the Hawaiian Islands during the first decade of this century. This dieback event was documented by several workers, most notably H.L. Lyon, and became known as the Maui Forest Trouble. The geology, cli...

Single photon lidar (SPL) is an innovative technology for rapid forest structure and terrain characterization over large areas. Here, we evaluate data from an SPL instrument - the High Resolution Quantum Lidar System (HRQLS) that was used to map the entirety of Garrett County in Maryland, USA (1700 km(2)). We develop novel approaches to filter solar noise to enable the derivation of forest cano...

Efficient characterisation of forest structure is integral to regional scale biomass and carbon stock estimation, habitat management and forest condition assessment. Key descriptors or data primitives of forest structure, such as Canopy Height (CH) and Canopy Height Profile (CHP) can be used to model indirectly measurable characteristics. Existing methods that utilise Light Detection and Rangin...

This paper discusses the sensitivity of scatterometric and radiometric sensors to the surface characteristics of canopy-covered soils, and compares their performances in separating crops and in measuring soil moisture and vegetation biomass.

This paper reports on a test of the ability to estimate above-ground biomass of tropical secondary forest from canopy spectral re ectance using satellite optical data. Landsat Thematic Mapper data were acquired concurrent with Ž eld surveys conducted in secondary forest fallows nearManaus, Brazil and Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. Measurements of age and above-ground live biomass were made ...

Surveying primary tropical forest over large regions is challenging. Indirect methods of relating terrain information or other external spatial datasets to forest biophysical parameters can provide forest structural maps at large scales but the inherent uncertainties need to be evaluated fully. The goal of the present study was to evaluate relief characteristics, measured through geomorphometri...

Understanding the relationship between the size of mangrove structural features and the optimum image pixel size is essential to support effective mapping activities in mangrove environments. This study developed a method to estimate the optimum image pixel size for accurately mapping mangrove features (canopy types and features (gaps, tree crown), community, and cover types) and tested the app...

--The habitat requirements of open nesting birds were examined in 19, five hectare, plots arranged along an altitudinal gradient in western Montana. Seven, mature forest birds were examined in detai 1. Percent shrub and low canopy cover {0.5-1.5m), mid-canopy cover {8-25m), and the number of large diameter stems {25-50 em dbh) were of major importance to this avian co11111unity. Increased avian...