This study tests whether ERS-2 and Radarsat Standard Beam SAR data could be used to detect spring green-up of broadleaf forests on ̄ oodplains in interior Alaska. SAR data were acquired for preand post-budburst dates during the spring of 1997, 1998 and 1999. The images were radiometrically calibrated todB and then geometrically co-registered to a colour infrared Landsat TM image. Ten broadleaf ...

Tropical grasses fuel the majority of fires on Earth. In fire-prone landscapes, enhanced flammability may be adaptive for grasses via the maintenance of an open canopy and an increase in spatiotemporal opportunities for recruitment and regeneration. In addition, by burning intensely but briefly, high flammability may protect resprouting buds from lethal temperatures. Despite these potential ben...

We investigated how leaf hydraulic conductance (K(leaf)) of loblolly pine trees is influenced by soil nitrogen amendment (N) in stands subjected to ambient or elevated CO(2) concentrations (CO(2)(a) and CO(2)(e), respectively). We also examined how K(leaf) varies with changes in reference leaf water potential (Psi(leaf-ref)) and stomatal conductance (g(s-ref)) calculated at vapour pressure defi...

Maize crops grown during summer-rainy season in Asian tropics are prone to face both drought and excess moisture stress due uneven distribution patterns of monsoon rains in the region. We attempted to identify the relationship between drought and excess moisture tolerance through evaluation of a set of elite maize inbred lines, including lines with known performance under drought, excess moistu...

Soil moisture status in the root zone is an important component of the water cycle at all spatial scales (e.g., point, field, catchment, watershed, and region). In this study, the spatio-temporal evolution of root zone soil moisture of the Walnut Gulch Experimental Watershed (WGEW) in Arizona was investigated during the Soil Moisture Experiment 2004 (SMEX04). Root zone soil moisture was estimat...

Despite the importance of the coupling between vegetation dynamics and root-zone soil moisture in land-atmosphere interactions, there is no land data assimilation system (LDAS) that currently addresses this issue, limiting the capacity to positively impact weather and seasonal forecasting. We develop a new LDAS that can improve the skill of an ecohydrological model to simulate simultaneously su...

The relationship of plant secondary chemistry, water content, and nutrient content to the palatability of leaves to the leafcutting ant Atta cephalotes was determined in a study of individuals from 50 woody plant species in tropical dry forest of Costa Rica. The study took place during the yearly period of maximum leaf harvest, in the early rainy season. The palatability of plants was determine...

Radiative-transfer physically-based studies have previously demonstrated the relationship between leaf water content and leaf-level reflectance in the near-infrared spectral region. The successful scaling up of such methods to the canopy level requires modeling the effect of canopy structure and viewing geometry on reflectance bands and optical indices used for estimation of water content, such...