Relatively intense burning has been suggested as a possible alternative to the restoration of pre-European settlement forest conditions and fire regime in mixed conifer forests, in contrast to thinning of trees and light prescribed burning. In 1993 a management-ignited fire in a dense, never-harvested forest in Grand Canyon National Park escaped prescription and burned with greater intensity an...

Background: Investigation on the natural radionuclides 238U, 232Th, 40K and natural fallout radionuclide 210Po in the prominent plants species of Western Ghats tropical forest near Kotagiri have been carried out as a part of baseline background radiation studies in the forest environment. Materials and Methods: The prominent plants species of the region Evodia roxburghiana and Eleaoca...

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...

Introduction: Investigation on the natural radionuclides 238U, 232Th, 40K and natural fallout radionuclide 210Po in the prominent plants species of Western Ghats tropical forest near Kotagiri have been carried out as a part of baseline background radiation studies in the forest environment. Materials and Methods: The prominent plants species of the region Evodia roxburghiana and Eleaocarpus obl...

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...

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...

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...

Light is a key resource for plant growth and is of particular importance in forest ecosystems, because of the strong vertical structure leading to successive light interception from canopy to forest floor. Tree species differ in the quantity and heterogeneity of light they transmit. We expect decreases in both the quantity and spatial heterogeneity of light transmittance in mixed stands relativ...

We characterized the volume, weight and top surface area of naturally fallen logs in an oldgrowth redwood forest, and quantified conifer recruit densities on these logs and on the surrounding forest floor. We report significantly greater conifer recruit densities on log substrates as compared to the forest floor. Log substrate availability was calculated on a per hectare basis using the line-in...

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...