A field experiment was conducted to investigate the influence of composted pineapple residue return (CPRR) on soil bio-chemical properties and the growth performance of next-cropped pineapple plants. The results suggested that CPRR markedly decreased the soil bulk density and increased the contents of available P and K. CPRR significantly increased the abundance of bacteria and actinomycetes, a...

Airborne lidar (Light Detection And Ranging) is a proven technology that can be used to accurately assess aboveground forest biomass and bio-energy feedstocks. The overall goal of this study was to develop a method for assessing aboveground biomass and component biomass for individual trees using airborne lidar data in forest settings typical for loblolly pine stands (Pinus taeda L.) in the sou...

In this paper a method for automatic extraction of building roof boundaries is proposed, which combines LiDAR data and highresolution aerial images. The proposed method is based on three steps. In the first step aboveground objects are extracted from LiDAR data. Initially a filtering algorithm is used to process the original LiDAR data for getting ground and non-ground points. Then, a region-gr...

Experiments with potted plants and removed understories have indicated that understory vegetation often affects the chemical and microbial properties of soil. In this study, we examined the mechanism and extent of the influence of understory vegetation on the chemical and microbial properties of soil in plantation forests. The relationships between the vegetational structure (diversity for diff...

Broad-scale estimates of belowground biomass are needed to understand wetland resiliency and C and N cycling, but these estimates are difficult to obtain because root:shoot ratios vary considerably both within and between species. We used remotely-sensed estimates of two aboveground plant characteristics, aboveground biomass and % foliar N to explore biomass allocation in low diversity freshwat...

Aboveground plant performance is strongly influenced by belowground microorganisms, some of which are pathogenic and have negative effects, while others, such as nitrogen-fixing bacteria and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, usually have positive effects. Recent research revealed that belowground interactions between plants and functionally distinct groups of microorganisms cascade up to abovegroun...

Over the past two decades a growing body of empirical research has shown that many ecological processes are mediated by a complex array of indirect interactions occurring between rhizosphere-inhabiting organisms and those found on aboveground plant parts. Aboveground-belowground studies have thus far focused on elucidating processes and underlying mechanisms that mediate the behavior and perfor...

Accurate estimation of forest biomass C stock is essential to understand carbon cycles. However, current estimates of Chinese forest biomass are mostly based on inventory-based timber volumes and empirical conversion factors at the provincial scale, which could introduce large uncertainties in forest biomass estimation. Here we provide a data-driven estimate of Chinese forest aboveground biomas...

Mapping the regional distribution of forest canopy height and aboveground biomass is worthwhile and necessary for estimating the carbon stocks on Earth and assessing the terrestrial carbon flux. In this study, we produced maps of forest canopy height and the aboveground biomass at a 30 m spatial resolution in Maryland by combining Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS) data and Landsat spectr...