Recent studies show widespread encroachment of forest into savannas with important consequences for the global carbon cycle and land-atmosphere interactions. However, little research has focused on in situ measurements of the successional sequence of savanna to forest in Africa. Using long-term inventory plots we quantify changes in vegetation structure, above-ground biomass (AGB) and biodivers...

This paper explores the information forest inventory data can produce regarding forest types that were not sampled and develops the equations necessary to define the upper confidence bounds on not-sampled forest types. The problem is reduced to a Bernoulli variable. This simplification allows the upper confidence bounds to be calculated based on Cochran (1977). Examples are provided that demons...

Methods: We used early land survey records (1846–1949) of public lands to reconstruct pre-settlement forest composition. The data consist of ranked tree species enumerations at points or for segments along surveyed lines, with enumerations of forest cover types and notes concerning disturbances. An original procedure was developed to weigh and combine these differing data types (line versus poi...

More recently, the concept of integrated forest biorefinery (IFBR) has received much attention as a promising solution for the struggling forest industry in North America and Europe to overcome its difficult financial period and competes globally. This new business paradigm offers a broad range of potentially attractive products, from bioenergy to value-added green organic chemicals in addition...

land use change may influence many natural phenomena and ecological processes, including runoff, soil erosion, sedimentation and soil conditions. decreasing of forest area in the north of iran is one of the critical problems in recent years. the aims of this study are to detect land use changes between 1967 to 2002 using satellite images of land sat 7 etm+ (2002), aerial photos and digital topo...

Patterns of habitat specialization can be used to infer conservation risks for species whose habitats are being degraded or lost due to anthropogenic activity. We assigned levels of forest type specialization to birds based on their occurrence and local abundance in three basic types of Atlantic rainforest in southern Brazil: seasonal semi-deciduous forest, mixed rainforest, and dense rainfores...

Coffee agroforestry systems and secondary forests have been shown to support similar bird communities but comparing these habitat types are challenged by potential biases due to differences in detectability between habitats. Furthermore, seasonal dynamics may influence bird communities differently in different habitat types and therefore seasonal effects should be considered in comparisons. To ...

We examine the effects of forest fragmentation on the structure and composition of tree assemblages within three seasonal and aseasonal forest types of southern Brazil, including evergreen, Araucaria, and deciduous forests. We sampled three southernmost Atlantic Forest landscapes, including the largest continuous forest protected areas within each forest type. Tree assemblages in each forest ty...

This study was undertaken to quantify the nutrient turnover and soil fertility status in the natural forests of Central Western Ghats. Major nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium were analyzed in the litter, both from the samples collected in pre and post monsoon seasons. There was no much difference seen in the values between the two seasons studied in all the three nutrients st...

The stocks and characteristics of coarse woody debris (CWD) are expected to reflect forest stand features. However, despite their importance, there have been no reports of CWD stocks and characteristics in the Qinling Mountains. We measured the CWD stocks in different CWD types, decay classes and diameter classes of the five forest types in the Qinling Mountains. The highest biomass of CWD was ...