A model of the within-season growth of terrestrial orchids is presented. The model predicts the size of the tubers of Dactylorhiza majalis and Dactylorhiza fuchsii. Therefore, destructive methods can be avoided when sampling these rare orchids. The correlation coefficient and the slope of the relation between two consecutive measurements of leaf area early in the season are good indicators of p...

The soil roughness at the field level is an easy visually perceptible notion, but difficult to describe numerically. The objective of this paper is to propose a method to establish quantitative and descriptive soil roughness indices. A measurement system was developed using a laptop-computer and a laser cell. The elevation data are measured on the ground along a square array. They are treated w...

Landscape-scale patterns of vegetation occur worldwide at interfaces between semiarid and arid climates. They are important as potential indicators of climate change and imminent regime shifts and are widely thought to arise from positive feedback between vegetation and infiltration of rainwater. On gentle slopes the typical pattern form is bands (stripes), oriented parallel to the contours, an...

We compare the results of two independent synthetic aperture radar differential interferometry (DInSAR) approaches to slope instability investigations in the Maratea valley (Southern Italy), based on different processing methods and software. The area selected for the comparison is well ground truthed and provides suitable examples of movements ranging from mm to cm per year. The DInSAR analyse...

The purpose of this study was to investigate the evolution of ground reaction force during alpine skiing turns. Specifically, this study investigated how turn phases and slope steepness affected the whole foot normal GRF pattern while performing giant slalom turns in a race-like setting. Moreover, the outside foot was divided into different plantar regions to see whether those parameters affect...

The balance between photosynthesis and plant respiration in tropical forests may substantially affect the global carbon cycle. Woody tissue CO2 efflux is a major component of total plant respiration, but estimates of ecosystem-scale rates are uncertain because of poor sampling in the upper canopy and across landscapes. To overcome these problems, we used a portable scaffolding tower to measure ...

Unexpected changes in flexor-extensor muscle activation synergies during slope walking in the cat have been explained previously by 1) a reorganization of circuitry in the central pattern generator or 2) altered muscle and cutaneous afferent inputs to motoneurons that modulate their activity. The aim of this study was to quantify muscle length changes, muscle loads, and ground reaction forces d...

We present a new method for the automatic classification of Persistent Scatters Interferometry (PSI) time series based on a conditional sequence of statistical tests. Time series are classified into distinctive predefined target trends, such as uncorrelated, linear, quadratic, bilinear and discontinuous, that describe different styles of ground deformation. Our automatic analysis overcomes limi...