We summarize available information about the relationships between oak overstory and understory plants for major California rangeland types. Understory biomass, productivity, and plant species composition vary considerably because of geographic location, overstory species composition, and overstory density and distribution. Deciduous oak canopies in areas with less than 50 cm annual precipitati...

Within-stand variation in understory species composition and biomass was studied in 16 even-aged stands of mixed Red Alder Sitka Spruce Western Hemlock (Alnus rubra Picea sitchensis Tsuga heterophylla) forest. The sites were upland sites, and the stands were 28-39 years old. We compared understory within three categories of microsite types: Red Alder-dominated, conifer-dominated, and mixed alde...

Understory vegetation plays a crucial role in carbon and nutrient cycling in forest ecosystems; however, it is not clear how understory species affect tree litter decomposition and nutrient dynamics. In this study, we examined the impacts of understory litter on the decomposition and nutrient release of tree litter both in a pine (Pinus sylvestris var. mongolica) and a poplar (Populus × xiaozhu...

Reforested plantations have substantial effects on terrestrial carbon cycling due to their large coverage area. Although understory plants are important components of reforested plantations, their effects on ecosystem carbon dynamics remain unclear. This study was designed to investigate the effects of vegetation removal/understory removal and tree girdling on soil respiration and ecosystem car...

In this paper we describe an approach to classify forested areas based on their vertical vegetation structure using Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS) data. Surface and terrain roughness are essential input parameters for modeling of natural hazards such as avalanches and floods whereas it is basically assumed that flow velocities decrease with increasing roughness. Seeing roughness as a multi-scale...

The confounding effect of understory vegetation contributions to satellite-derived estimates of leaf area index (LAI) was investigated on two loblolly pine (Pinus taeda) forest stands located in Virginia and North Carolina. In order to separate NDVI contributions of the dominant-codominate crown class from that of the understory, two P. taeda 1 ha plots centered in planted stands of ages 19 and...

Nonnative ungulates can alter the structure and function of forest ecosystems. Feral pigs in particular pose a substantial threat to native plant communities throughout their global range. Hawaiian forests are exceptionally vulnerable to feral pig activity because native vegetation evolved in the absence of large mammalian herbivores. A common approach for conserving and restoring forests in Ha...

Although savanna trees and forest trees are thought to represent distinct functional groups with different effects on ecosystem processes, few empirical studies have examined these effects. In particular, it remains unclear if savanna and forest trees differ in their ability to coexist with understory plants, which comprise the majority of plant diversity in most savannas. We used structural eq...

In light of an anticipated shift in timber extraction that focuses on non-pine forest types in the Northern Interior forest region, the evaluation of new remote sensing tools in these areas provide an important opportunity to examine methods, models and processes for improved inventories and resource analyses. This report summarizes the application of the LiDAR system to estimate understory veg...