Forest canopy research: sampling problems, and some solutions

Barker, Martin; Pinard, Michelle A.

doi:10.1007/978-94-017-3606-0_3

Cited by 42 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 58 publications

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“…Here, as an improvement to stratified clipping, the horizontal biomass distribution can also be described (Fukushima et al 1998). A big disadvantage is that the use of a scaffolding in a forest is strongly limited by the topographic conditions, understory density and stand height (Barker and Pinard 2001).…”

Section: Stratified Clipping and The Scaffolding Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…centimetres) is extremely laborious. The access to the canopy itself could be limited as dense understory vegetation would hinder the complex instrument setup, such as the installation of a scaffolding (Barker and Pinard 2001). In addition, the destructive character of some direct methods does not allow repeated measurements and can be problematic in National Parks due to nature protection polices.…”

Section: Where or Under Which Conditions Were Measurements Possiblementioning

confidence: 99%

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Review of ground-based methods to measure the distribution of biomass in forest canopies

Seidel

Fleck

Leuschner

et al. 2011

Annals of Forest Science

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& Context Ecological research and an effective forest management need accurate information on the structure of the forest canopy to understand the biochemical, physiological and biogeochemical processes within a forest. & Research question This paper reviews the currently available instruments for measuring the distribution of biomass within forest canopies. We compare the most well-established approaches and present the different measurable parameters. A special focus lies on the resolution of the obtained data. & Results It was found that only 3D laser scanners offer data with the resolution required by ecologists, private landholders, the forest industry and the public to detect trends in tree growth patterns and canopy interactions in all three spatial dimensions. But data validation, data analysis and parameter extraction are still under development, and the price of the instrument is quite high. & Conclusion Research should focus on the parameter extraction from terrestrial laser scanner data as this could allow the calculation of functional attributes for different sections of a canopy on a high spatial resolution. It could also help ecologists characterize the structure of forest stands in a quick and precise way.

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Section: Stratified Clipping and The Scaffolding Approachmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Where or Under Which Conditions Were Measurements Possiblementioning

confidence: 99%

Review of ground-based methods to measure the distribution of biomass in forest canopies

Seidel

Fleck

Leuschner

et al. 2011

Annals of Forest Science

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“…In contrast, quantitative methods to sample and analyse vascular epiphyte vegetation in the canopy have received little attention, with a few exceptions (Barker & Pinard 2001, Bergstrom & Tweedie 1998, Gradstein et al 1996ter Steege & Cornelissen 1988). Comparisons among inventories and datasets are often hampered because investigators used different sample units (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A protocol for sampling vascular epiphyte richness and abundance

2009

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Abstract:The sampling of epiphytes is fraught with methodological difficulties. We present a protocol to sample and analyse vascular epiphyte richness and abundance in forests of different structure (SVERA). Epiphyte abundance is estimated as biomass by recording the number of plant components in a range of size cohorts. Epiphyte species biomass is estimated on 35 sample-trees, evenly distributed over six trunk diameter-size cohorts (10 trees with dbh > 30 cm). Tree height, dbh and number of forks (diameter > 5 cm) yield a dimensionless estimate of the size of the tree. Epiphyte dry weight and species richness between forests is compared with ANCOVA that controls for tree size. S Chao1 is used as an estimate of the total number of species at the sites. The relative dependence of the distribution of the epiphyte communities on environmental and spatial variables may be assessed using multivariate analysis and Mantel test. In a case study, we compared epiphyte vegetation of six Mexican oak forests and one Colombian oak forest at similar elevation. We found a strongly significant positive correlation between tree size and epiphyte richness or biomass at all sites. In forests with a higher diversity of host trees, more trees must be sampled. Epiphyte biomass at the Colombian site was lower than in any of the Mexican sites; without correction for tree size no significant differences in terms of epiphyte biomass could be detected. The occurrence of spatial dependence, at both the landscape level and at the tree level, shows that the inclusion of spatial descriptors in SVERA is justified.

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“…for carbon modelling), however, from a validation point of view, without a close-up view of the top of the canopy (e.g. using a cherry-picker, ladder, or scaffolding (Barker and Pinard, 2001;Moorthy et al, 2007)), these objects would not have been visible on the ground beneath the canopy.…”

Section: Dead Wood Detectionmentioning

confidence: 99%