The three-dimensional structure of a coniferous shoot gives rise to multiple scattering of light between the needles of the shoot, causing the shoot spectral reflectance to differ from that of a flat leaf. Forest reflectance models based on the radiative transfer equation handle shoot level clumping by correcting the radiation attenuation coefficient with a clumping index. The clumping index ca...

the assessment of the quantitative and qualitative changes, the result of the impacts imposed by natural factors, and human interventions during specific sampling periods has a substantial influence on nature, management method and tending operation of every region’s forests. the present research was carried out in golestan province forests (iran) over an 11- year period and the obtained statis...

Non-structural carbohydrates (NSC) are products of photosynthesis, and leaf NSC concentration may be a prognostic indicator of climate-change tolerance in woody plants. However, measurement of leaf NSC is prohibitively labor intensive, especially in tropical forests, where foliage is difficult to access and where NSC concentrations vary enormously by species and across environments. Imaging spe...

The assessment of the quantitative and qualitative changes, the result of the impacts imposed by natural factors, and human interventions during specific sampling periods has a substantial influence on nature, management method and tending operation of every region’s forests. The present research was carried out in Golestan province forests (Iran) over an 11- year period and the obtained statis...

Models of forest energy, water and carbon cycles assume decreased stomatal conductance with elevated atmospheric CO2 concentration ([CO2]) based on leaf-scale measurements, a response not directly translatable to canopies. Where canopy-atmosphere are well-coupled, [CO2 ]-induced structural changes, such as increasing leaf-area index (LD), may cause, or compensate for, reduced mean canopy stomat...

—Canopy coverage is a key variable used to characterize forest structure. In addition, the light transmitted through the canopy is an important ecological indicator of plant and animal habitat and understory climate conditions. A common groundbased method used to document canopy coverage is to take digital photographs from below the canopy. To assist with analyzing below-canopy photographs, the...

We propose a new spectral index, the Normalized Difference Fraction Index (NDFI), for enhanced detection of forest canopy damage caused by selective logging activities and associated forest fires. The NDFI synthesizes information from several component fraction images derived from spectral mixture models. Interpretation of the NDFI data is facilitated by a contextual classification algorithm (C...

Although many studies have investigated the effects of forest cover on streamflow and runoff, and several have examined the effects of canopy density on snowpack accumulation, the impacts of forest canopy density on spatial patterns of snowmelt input to catchments remain relatively underquantified. We performed an intensive snow depth and density survey during maximum accumulation in a mid-lati...

Water erosion causes severe soil damage in northern forests of Iran which is associated with different rut depths in skid trails. The aim of this study was to assess rutting and soil displacement on skid trails to mitigate water erosion. Therefore the research was carried out in eight parcels of district No 3 of Shafarood Forest in the North of Iran. In order to evaluate the amount of erosion i...

Trees of temperate rainforests host a large biomass of epiphytic plants, which are associated with soils formed in the forest canopy. Falling of epiphytic material results in the transfer of carbon and nutrients from the canopy to the forest floor. This study provides the first characterization of bacterial communities in canopy soils enabled by high-depth environmental sequencing of 16S rRNA g...