KERNEL FEATURE CROSS-CORRELATION FOR UNSUPERVISED QUANTIFICATION OF DAMAGE FROM WINDTHROW IN FORESTS

In this study estimation of tree damage from a windthrow event using feature detection on RGB high resolution imagery is assessed. An accurate quantitative assessment of the damage in terms of volume is important and can be done by ground sampling, which is notably expensive and time-consuming, or by manual interpretation and analyses of aerial images. This latter manual method also requires an expert operator investing time to manually detect damaged trees and apply relation functions between measures and volume which are also error-prone. In the proposed method RGB images with 0.2 m ground sample distance are analysed using an adaptive template matching method. Ten images corresponding to ten separate study areas are tested. A 13 7 13 pixels kernel with a simplified lin ear-feature representation of a cylinder is applied at different rotation angles (from 0\ub0 to 170\ub0 at 10\ub0 steps). The higher values of the normalized cross-correlation (NCC) of all angles are recorded for each pixel for each image. Several features are tested: percentiles (75, 80, 85, 90, 95, 99, max) and sum and number of pixels with NCC above 0.55. Three regression methods are tested, multiple regression (mr), support vector machines (SVM) with linear kernel and random forests. The first two methods gave the best results. The ground-truth was acquired by ground sampling, and total volumes of damaged trees are estimated for each of the 10 areas. Damaged volumes in the ten areas range from 3c1.8 7 102 m3 to 3c1.2 7 104 m3. Regression results show that smv regression method over the sum gives an R-squared of 0.92, a mean of absolute errors (MAE) of 255 m3 and a relative absolute error (RAE) of 34% using leave-one-out cross validation from the 10 observations. These initial results are encouraging and support further investigations on more finely tuned kernel template metrics to define an unsupervised image analysis process to automatically assess forest damage from windthrow

Notes on the Biology of \u3ci\u3eSaperda Imitans\u3c/i\u3e Infesting Wind-Damaged Black Cherry in Allegheny Hardwood Stands

This paper reports observations made on the life history and biology of Saperda imitans Felt & Joutel in black cherry, Prunus serotina Ehrh. S. imitans was the principle longhorned beetle (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) reared from bolts collected from 68 wind-thrown black cherry at the Kane Experimental Forest in northwestern Pennsylvania. It was also the only species that overwintered in the sapwood/outer heartwood, and thus impacted the commercial value of these trees. Gaurotes cyanipennis (Say) was the only other cerambycid reared from caged bolts taken from wind-thrown black cherry. The cerambycids Stenocorus vittiger (Randall), Arthophylax attenuatus (Haldman), G. cyanipennis, Neoclytus acuminatus acuminatus (F.), Clytus ruricola (Olivier), Cyrtophorus verrucosus (Olivier), and Astylopsis macula (Say) were captured in ethanol-baited Lindgren® funnel traps placed in wind-thrown stands, but were not reared from cherry logs. S. imitans was not caught in these traps and apparently it is not attracted to ethanol baits. Neither S. imitans nor G. cyanipennis were reared from completely uprooted trees (dead) or trees with a major portion of the root system still embedded in soil (live). Preferred hosts were black cherry with moist phloem and epicormic branches with \u3c25% live foliage (dying). The density of S. imitans galleries was similar for dying trees in each of three diameter classes; 20-30 cm, \u3e30-40 cm, \u3e40cm. Samples taken from the upper half of the first 5 m of black cherry boles had a higher density of galleries than did those from the lower half. The beetle was recovered in low numbers from branches \u3c10 cm in basal diameter. S. imitans is univoltine and in 2007 peak emergence of adults occurred from late May to early June. Results identified the condition of wind-damaged black cherry most susceptible to an infestation of S. imitans. This information can be used to establish salvage priorities following a weather event such as this

Effect of soil waterlogging on below-ground biomass allometric relations in Norway spruce

An increasing importance is assigned to the estimation and verification of carbon stocks in forests. Forestry practice has several long-established and reliable methods for the assessment of aboveground biomass; however we still miss accurate predictors of belowground biomass. A major windthrow event exposing the coarse root systems of Norway spruce trees allowed us to assess the effects of contrasting soil stone and water content on belowground allocation. Increasing stone content decreases root/shoot ratio, while soil waterlogging leads to an increase in this ratio. We constructed allometric relationships for belowground biomass prediction and were able to show that only soil waterlogging significantly impacts model parameters. We showed that diameter at breast height is a reliable predictor of belowground biomass and, once site-specific parameters have been developed, it is possible to accurately estimate belowground biomass in Norway spruce

Impacts of salvage-logging on the status of deadwood after windthrow in Swiss forests

Downed and standing deadwood (DW) is a key resource for maintaining forest biodiversity. Although extreme events such as windthrow and fires produce large quantities of DW, this substrate is often drastically reduced by logging activities. To elucidate the respecting consequences of salvage-logging, we assessed both quantity and quality of storm-derived DW (storms Vivian 1990 and Lothar 1999) in Swiss forests using a sample of 90 windthrow sites with ≥3ha complete windthrow and at elevations ranging from 350 to 1,800m a.s.l. The majority had been salvage-logged (SL) a few years after the windthrow. On each site, we recorded DW amount and quality on six circular sample plots 20 or 50m2 in size. DW volume on SL sites was surprisingly high, with 76.4m3 ha−1 on average 20years after Vivian and 73.8m3 ha−1 10years after Lothar. In comparison, DW volumes on unsalvaged sites, that is, with no post-windthrow intervention (NI), amounted to 270m3 ha−1. A wide variety of wood decay stages and diameter classes (10 to ≥70cm) was found on both NI and SL sites, suggesting considerable habitat diversity for DW-associated species irrespective of the treatment. The considerable amounts of DW left after salvage-logging distinctly exceed the minimum DW volumes in forest stands proposed by Müller and Bütler (Eur J For Res 129: 981-992, 2010) in a conservation context, which demonstrates the importance of wind disturbance for biodiversity. Further studies should quantify DW of individual tree species, since habitat requirements are species-specifi

Effects of climate extremes on the terrestrial carbon cycle : concepts, processes and potential future impacts

This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. Acknowledgements This work emerged from the CARBO-Extreme project, funded by the European Community’s 7th framework programme under grant agreement (FP7-ENV-2008-1-226701). We are grateful to the Reviewers and the Subject Editor for helpful guidance. We thank to Silvana Schott for graphic support. Mirco Miglivacca provided helpful comments on the manuscript. Michael Bahn acknowledges support from the Austrian Science Fund (FWF; P22214-B17). Sara Vicca is a postdoctoral research associate of the Fund for Scientific Research – Flanders. Wolfgang Cramer contributes to the Labex OT-Med (n° ANR-11- LABX-0061) funded by the French government through the A*MIDEX project (n° ANR-11-IDEX-0001-02). Flurin Babst acknowledges support from the Swiss National Science Foundation (P300P2_154543).Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Microbial PLFA, organic carbon fractions and microbial biomass in soils under different windthrow management in biospheric reservation of the Tatras

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Forest Response to Chronic Hurricane Disturbance in Coastal New England

Question: Hurricanes and cyclones cause a wide range of damage to coastal forests worldwide. Most of these storms are not catastrophic in ecological terms, but forest responses to storms of moderate intensities are poorly understood. In regions with a high frequency of moderate hurricanes, how does variation in disturbance intensity affect the magnitude of ecological responses? Location: Naushon Island, Massachusetts USA Methods: We use historical records and dendroecological methods to characterize establishment and growth of Fagus grandifolia, Quercus alba and Quercus velutina in response to seven non-catastrophic hurricanes of varying intensity and a major logging event, relative to baseline conditions, over the past ~ 150 years. Our aim was to document variation in the magnitude of responses to known disturbance events of varying intensity, and to determine whether tree growth after moderate hurricanes differs from growth during periods of no disturbance. Results: Forest harvesting in 1824-1827 had a strong impact on forest composition and growth. Since then, the study region has been characterized by little harvesting but frequent hurricanes. However, only one of the seven storms examined caused substantial increases in growth and new establishment for the dominant species; most moderate disturbances had minimal impacts on growth and regeneration dynamics. We also document highly variable responses among species to individual storms, including substantial growth decreases that may not be detected by standard analytical approaches. Conclusions: Our results caution against the use of simple metrics such as wind speed to predict forest response to specific hurricanes, and highlight the importance of individual disturbance events in controlling long-term forest dynamics, even in regions characterized by high disturbance frequency. Additionally, we show that standard approaches to reconstructing disturbance history based on increases in radial growth and pulses of tree establishment are likely to underestimate the frequency of moderate disturbances.Other Research Uni