Here we investigate the potential use of ALOS PALSAR L-band dual and quad polarization SAR data for improved forest structure mapping and parameter estimation. Several scenes of level 1.1 SLC data have been acquired under the DRAGON project in 2007 for the Tai-An test site of Shandong Province, P.R. China. The preliminary results for the first phase of this project are reported here. Firstly, t...

The structure of dung beetle communities inhabiting tropical forests are known to be sensitive to many kinds of environmental changes such as microclimate related to vegetation structure. I examined Scarabaeinae assemblages in two sites of undisturbed high forest and two sites of low forest forming a transitional zone with the open habitat of an inselberg in French Guiana. Sampling was made wit...

Ecosystem management of protection forests aims at maintaining forests near a state during which effective protection is secured. As the evolution of a dynamic forest ecosystem cannot be stopped, silvicultural measures are required which aim at maintaining both the ecosystem integrity and the protective function of mountain forests. Ecosystem integrity is defined as the system’s capacity to mai...

A gap-typed forest dynamic model KOPIDE was used to assess the dynamic responses of a mixed broadleaved-Korean pine forest stand to climate change in northeastem China. The GFDL climate change scenario was applied to derive the changes in environmental variables, such as 10 ~ based DEGD and PET~P, which were used to implement the model. The simulation result suggests that the climate change wou...

Regional factors, such as historical and contemporary climate conditions, local vegetation structural attributes, can influence current patterns of plant species richness but their relative roles remain unknown, particularly across forest strata. Here, we used a multi-scale survey temperate plots large region Northeast China to explore the importance environmental factors (paleoclimate, climate...

Two billion ha have been identified globally for forest restoration. Our meta-analysis encompassing 221 study landscapes worldwide reveals forest restoration enhances biodiversity by 15-84% and vegetation structure by 36-77%, compared with degraded ecosystems. For the first time, we identify the main ecological drivers of forest restoration success (defined as a return to a reference condition,...

Albedo and fraction of absorbed photosynthetically active radiation (FAPAR) determine the shortwave radiation balance and productivity of forests. Currently, the physical link between forest albedo and productivity is poorly understood, yet it is crucial for designing optimal forest management strategies for mitigating climate change. We investigated the relationships between boreal forest stru...

National Park Service policy directs that more natural conditions be restored to giant sequoia groves, which have been altered by a century of fire exclusion. Efforts to find a reasonable and practical definition of ‘‘natural’’ have helped drive scientists and land managers to use past grove conditions as reference conditions for restoration. Extensive research aimed at determining reference co...