GlobAllomeTree: international platform for tree allometric equations to support volume, biomass and carbon assessment

GlobAllomeTree is an international platform for tree allometric equations. It is the first worldwide web platform designed to facilitate the access of the tree allometric equation and to facilitate the assessment of the tree biometric characteristics for commercial volume, bio-energy or carbon cycling. The webplatform presents a database containing tree allometric equations, a software called Fantallomatrik, to facilitate the comparison and selection of the equations, and documentation to facilitate the development of new tree allometric models, improve the evaluation of tree and forest resources and improve knowledge on tree allometric equations. In the Fantallometrik software, equations can be selected by country, ecological zones, input parameters, tree species, statistic parameters and outputs. The continuously updated database currently contains over 5000 tree allometric equations classified according to 73 fields. The software Fantallometrik can be also used to compare equations, insert new data and estimate the selected output variables using field inventory. The GlobAllomeTree products are freely available at the URL: http://globallometree.org for a range of users including foresters, project developers, scientist, student and government staff

Wood day capacitance is related to water content, wood density, and anatomy across 30 temperate tree species

Water released from wood during transpiration (capacitance) can meaningfully affect daily water use and drought response. To provide context for better understanding of capacitance mechanisms, we investigated links between capacitance and wood anatomy. On twigs of 30 temperate angiosperm tree species, we measured day capacitance (between predawn and midday), water content, wood density, and anatomical traits, that is, vessel dimensions, tissue fractions, and vessel–tissue contact fractions (fraction of vessel circumference in contact with other tissues). Across all species, wood density (WD) and predawn lumen volumetric water content (VWCL-pd) together were the strongest predictors of day capacitance (r2adj =.44). Vessel–tissue contact fractions explained an additional ~10% of the variation in day capacitance. Regression models were not improved by including tissue lumen fractions. Among diffuse-porous species, VWCL-pd and vessel–ray contact fraction together were the best predictors of day capacitance, whereas among semi/ring-porous species, VWCL-pd, WD and vessel–fibre contact fraction were the best predictors. At predawn, wood was less than fully saturated for all species (lumen relative water content = 0.52 ± 0.17). Our findings imply that day capacitance depends on the amount of stored water, tissue connectivity and the bulk wood properties arising from WD (e.g., elasticity), rather than the fraction of any particular tissue

Similarity Based Cross-Section Segmentation in Rough Log End Images

Part 14: Image Video Processing 4International audienceThis work treats cross-section (CS) segmentation in digital images of rough wood log ends. Existing CS segmentation approaches are focused on computed tomography CS images of logs and no approach and experimental evaluation for digital images has been presented so far. Segmentation of cross-sections in rough log end images is a prerequisite for the development of novel log end analysis applications (e.g. biometric log recognition or automated log grading). We propose a simple and fast computable similarity-based region growing algorithm for CS segmentation. In our experiments we evaluate different texture features (Local binary patterns & Intensity histograms) and histogram distances. Results show that the algorithm achieves the most accurate results in combination with intensity histograms and the earth movers distance. Generally, we conclude that for certain applications simple texture features and a matured distance metric can outperform higher-order texture features and basic distance metrics