Post‐fire conifer regeneration hinders digital estimation of understorey plant cover in subalpine forest vegetation

Abstract

Question: Reliable estimates of understorey (non-tree) plant cover following fire are essential to assess early forest community recovery. Photographic digital image analysis (DIA) is frequently used in seral, single-strata vegetation, given its greater objectivity and repeatability compared to observer visual estimation; however, its efficacy in multi-strata forest vegetation may be compromised, where various visual obstructions (coarse downed wood [CDW], conifer regeneration, and shadows) may conceal plant cover in the digital imagery. We asked whether vegetation complexity influences plant cover estimated by DIA relative to two visual methods: plot-level (20 m 2 ) estimation (PLE) and quadrat-level (1 m 2 ) estimation (QLE)?