A quantitative study of pollarding process in silvopastoral systems of Northern Zagros, Iran

Khedri, Laila; Ghahramany, Loghman; Ghazanfari, Hedayat; Pulido, Fernando

doi:10.5424/fs/2017263-11433

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 18 publications

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“…Pollarding has been reported to be practiced in parts of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, especially for the benefit of using leaves and branches as animal fodder. Pollarding is hence an important factor in livestock management and relates to this important source of income in the farming economy [21][22][23][24][25]. Oak pollards are a part of traditional forest management in many ecosystems and have a very long history of about 4000 years [26].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Combination of UAV Photogrammetry and Field Inventories Enables Description of Height–Diameter Relationship within Semi-Arid Silvopastoral Systems

Fakhri,

Latifi,

Mohammadi Samani

et al. 2023

Remote Sensing

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Pollarding oak trees is a traditional silvopastoral technique practiced across wide areas of the northern Zagros mountains, a unique and vast semi-arid forest area with a strong cultural and ecological significance. So far, the effects of pollarding on tree structure in terms of DBH (diameter at breast height)~H (height) relationships within the typical pollarding cycle, which often lasts 4 years, has not been scientifically described. Here, we combine field inventories of DBH with H obtained from photogrammetric UAV flights for the first time to assess DBH~H relationships within this system. We conducted the research at six pollarded forest sites throughout the Northern Zagros. The sampling encompassed all three main species of coppice oak trees. In the case of multi-stem trees, we used the maximum DBH of each tree that formed a unique crown. A linear relationship between UAV and extracted H and the maximum DBH of pollarded trees explained a notable part of the variation in maximum DBH (R2 = 0.56), and more complex and well-known nonlinear allometries were also evaluated, for which the accuracies were in the same range as the linear model. This relationship proved to be stable across oak species, and the pollarding stage had a notable effect on the DBH~H relationship. This finding is relevant for future attempts to inventory biomass using remote sensing approaches across larger areas in northern Zagros, as well as for general DBH estimations within stands dominated by pollarded, multi-stem coppice structures.

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