This study aims to estimate forest above-ground biomass and biomass components in a stand of Picea crassifolia (a coniferous tree) located on Qilian Mountain, western China via low density small-footprint airborne LiDAR data. LiDAR points were first classified into ground points and vegetation points. After, vegetation statistics, including height quantiles, mean height, and fractional cover we...

Precise estimation of root biomass is important for understanding carbon stocks and dynamics in forests. Traditionally, biomass estimates are based on allometric scaling relationships between stem diameter and coarse root biomass calculated using linear regression (LR) on log-transformed data. Recently, it has been suggested that nonlinear regression (NLR) is a preferable fitting method for sca...

Forest biomass is one of the most important parameters for global carbon stock modelling yet can only be estimated with great uncertainties. Unfortunately, conventional remote sensing techniques for the estimation of forest biomass are not able to provide estimates on a global scale. An alternative approach is based on forest height estimates from single frequency polarimetric-interferometric S...

Lignocellulosic biomass can be a significant source of renewable clean energy with continued improvement in biomass yield and bioconversion strategies. In higher plants, the leaf blade is the central energy convertor where solar energy and CO2 are assimilated to make the building blocks for biomass production. Here we report that introducing the leaf blade development regulator STENOFOLIA (STF)...

Plants and animals are two successful, but vastly different, forms of complex multicellular life. In the 1600 million years since they shared a common unicellular ancestor, representatives of these kingdoms have had ample time to devise unique strategies for building and maintaining themselves, yet they have both developed self-renewing stem cell populations. Using the cellular behaviors and th...

1 The rapid growth rates of light-demanding tree species have been attributed in part to their low-density, low-cost stems. We evaluated the influence of light and biomass support costs on growth rates of trees 8–25 cm in diameter at breast height (d.b.h.) among 21 species differing in wood density in two aseasonal rain forests. 2 Measurements of crown width, tree height, d.b.h. and wood densit...

Natural grassland productivity, which is based on an individual plant's aboveground biomass (AB) and its interaction with herbivores, can obviously affect terrestrial ecosystem services and the grassland's agricultural production. As plant traits have been linked to both AB and ecosystem success, they may provide a useful approach to understand the changes in individual plants and grassland pro...

Recovery following defoliation can be modified by co-occurring site resource limitations. The growth response of young Eucalyptus globulus saplings to two defoliation events was examined in an experimental plantation with combinations of low (-) or high (+) water (W) and nitrogen (N) resources. Artificial defoliation was applied at 3 and 9 months of age to remove ~40 and 55% of leaf area in the...

Eucalyptus cultivation has expanded considerably in Brazilian systems, leading to the current search for technologies to optimize growing conditions and the production of seedlings in nurseries. Based on the understanding that the development of tree species such as Eucalyptus sp. can be influenced by endophytic fungi that act directly as plant growth-promoting species, cloned seedlings of Euca...