Ecological Indicators最新文献

{"title":"Zoning the soil salinization levels in the northern China’s coastal areas based on high-resolution soil mapping","authors":"Yuan Chi ,&nbsp;Minglei Fan ,&nbsp;Zhiwei Zhang ,&nbsp;Yubing Qu","doi":"10.1016/j.ecolind.2025.113303","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ecolind.2025.113303","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Zoning the soil salinization levels in large-scale coastal areas is vital for understanding the spatiotemporal mechanism of soil salinization and guiding the coastal integrated management. However, it is difficult due to the complicated influencing factors and the high demands for a fine mapping resolution and precise simulation results. In the present study, the northern China’s coastal areas (&gt; 6 4000 km²) were selected as the study area, and extensive field investigation, multispectral remote sensing images, and open-source land cover data served as the data source. A simulation unit of 100 m × 100 m was employed to precisely map the soil salinity (SS) based on a predictor system that covered different aspects of influencing factors, and high-resolution soil salinization maps were generated for the entire study area and different cities. Results indicated that the mapping obtained a relative-root mean squared error of 0.31, which was in a low level and denoted a high accuracy compared with previous studies. The soil salinization levels presented the following spatial heterogeneities: (1) The levels showed distinct polarization, that is, extremely low and high levels covered the most of the study area. (2) The SS exhibited a distinct decrease from the coastline to the inner land, and wetlands and water areas exhibited much higher SS than the remaining land cover types. (3) Muddy coasts suffered more severe soil salinization than rocky and sandy coasts in the alongshore areas. (4) The inner land was generally free from the salinization but some small patches of bare lands and water areas were still at risk. (5) Dongying, Binzhou, Weifang, and Yancheng Cities suffered much more distinct soil salinization than the remaining cities. The coastline and ecological quality were the major factors that determine the spatial pattern of soil salinization in the alongshore and inland areas, respectively.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11459,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Indicators","volume":"172 ","pages":"Article 113303"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143534328","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Regime shift of bacterial communities in lake ecosystems in the arid and semi-arid north-west of China: Evidence from the sedimentary archives","authors":"Yang Hu ,&nbsp;Jian Cai ,&nbsp;Jingjing Bai ,&nbsp;Wenfang Zhang ,&nbsp;Yi Gong ,&nbsp;Xingyu Jiang ,&nbsp;Xiangming Tang ,&nbsp;Keqiang Shao ,&nbsp;Jianying Chao ,&nbsp;Guang Gao","doi":"10.1016/j.ecolind.2025.113306","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ecolind.2025.113306","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Since the middle of the last century, China has experienced social-economic progress and climate transition, which have been strong triggers for the regime shift of lake ecosystem, threatening species coexistence, biodiversity and community persistence. Given the high vulnerability of ecosystems in arid and semi-arid north-west of China, anticipating their regime shifts can contribute to the development of effective interventions to maintain lake health. However, it is not known how and to what extent lake ecosystems have changed in this region. To fill this gap, we investigated the imprints in paleolimnological sedimental cores over the last 150 ∼ 200 years in shallow Lake Bosten and deep Lake Sayram. Results showed that anthropogenic heavy metals showed a sudden increase along the sediment cores. In Lake Bosten, bacterial diversity, niche differentiation, and species interactions exhibited a stepwise shift from an alternative state to anther in a nonlinear manner, highlighting the existence of regime shift. In contrast, in Lake Sayram, the change in bacterial communities was more gradual. Compared with the two alternative states, network topology analysis revealed tighter bacterial interactions in the intermediate transitional phase, which implicates stable-unstable-stable progresses during the regime shift. Concurrently, the predominant deterministic processes in the two alternative states and stochastic processes in the transitional phase may reflect the important roles of stochasticity in triggering the regime shift. Overall, our study showed that anthropogenic activities lead to a regime shift in the shallow lake rather but not in the deep lake.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11459,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Indicators","volume":"172 ","pages":"Article 113306"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143548057","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Ecosystem services and their drivers under different watershed- management patterns in the western Chinese Loess Plateau","authors":"Le Chen ,&nbsp;Wei Wei ,&nbsp;Bing Tong ,&nbsp;Liding Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.ecolind.2025.113321","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ecolind.2025.113321","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Investigating ecosystem services (ESs) in fragile ecological regions is vital for optimizing land resource efficiency and guiding multi-objective decision-making. However, research on ESs and their drivers under various watershed-management patterns (WMPs) remains limited. To fill the gap, this study focuses on China’s western Loess Plateau, examining four typical WMPs—grassland restoration, terrace farming, forest restoration, and mixed-type watersheds—with six watersheds per pattern. Using multi-source data, we quantified land use and ESs, including soil conservation (SC), water yield (WY), and carbon sequestration (NPP). A projection pursuit regression model was employed assessed the impacts of four comprehensive factors (climate, topography, landscape, and vegetation cover) and 18 sub-factors on ESs, identifying key drivers in different WMPs. The results showed that (1) Land use distribution changes varying by elevation, slope, and aspect. (2) From 2010 to 2020, land use have significant trends of grassland converting to terraces, and both converting to forests. (3) ESs improved, with climate driving WY across all WMPs, while topography influences SC. NPP was controlled by climate in grassland and terraced watersheds, landscape in forests, and both in mixed watersheds. (4) Among sub-factors, NPP in grassland restoration was driven by grassland cover and SC by precipitation. In terrace farming and forest restoration, NPP was influenced by forests, terraces, and shrubs, while SC depended on slope. Precipitation drove WY across all WMPs. These findings highlight the need to prioritize modifiable factors—such as landscape, vegetation, and water management—in ecological restoration, providing key insights for improving efforts in fragile environments.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11459,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Indicators","volume":"172 ","pages":"Article 113321"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143601862","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Relationship between continuous or discontinuous of controlling factors and landslide susceptibility in the high-cold mountainous areas, China","authors":"Heping Shu ,&nbsp;Shi Qi ,&nbsp;Xingrong Liu ,&nbsp;Xianxian Shao ,&nbsp;Xingkun Wang ,&nbsp;Dongyuan Sun ,&nbsp;Sangjie Yang ,&nbsp;Jiale He","doi":"10.1016/j.ecolind.2025.113313","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ecolind.2025.113313","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The continuity, discontinuity, and combination conditions of landslide triggering factors are critical issues that must be addressed in the process of calculating landslide susceptibility (LS). However, the different methods and factor combinations used to process these factors can significantly affect the accuracy and reliability of susceptibility results and disaster management. To explore this, the Xiying River Basin in the Qilian Mountains was selected as the study area. A combination of field investigations, 3S technology, conventional information value (CIV), Automatic Landslide Susceptibility Analysis software (ALSA), and random forest (RF) were used to calculate the weights of landslide-controlling factors and the LS. Additionally, the role of factor continuity and discontinuity within LS and the implications for disaster prevention and mitigation were further discussed. The results showed that the LS accuracy of ALSA consistently outperformed that of other methods across different factor combinations. The average accuracy of CIV, ALSA, and RF were 0.870, 0.923, and 0.894, respectively. The spatial distribution of LS generally showed similar patterns under different combinations of evaluation factors and methods. The relative importance of the factors under the 15-factor, 12-factor, and 9-factor conditions was similar, with road construction, rivers, surface temperature, and faults having a significant impact on landslide occurrence. Specifically, the weight of road construction was 16.49 %, 20.32 %, and 24.19 %, respectively, while the weight of rivers was 13.04 %, 12.83 %, and 16.58 %. Furthermore, ALSA demonstrated its ability to quickly classify continuous factors and assess landslide susceptibility, which is particularly useful in geological disaster response and relief operations. Additionally, in order to enhance the effectiveness of national poverty reduction policies, it is crucial to consider the increased geological disaster risks associated with population migration. As population density and wealth concentration grow in “Socialist New Countryside” areas, particularly in the western mountainous regions of China, the transition of potential geological disaster risks must be carefully managed.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11459,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Indicators","volume":"172 ","pages":"Article 113313"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143548067","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Land use modeling and habitat quality assessment under climate scenarios: A case study of the Poyang Lake basin","authors":"Chao Tian ,&nbsp;Jie Zhong ,&nbsp;Qinghui You ,&nbsp;Chaoyang Fang ,&nbsp;Qiwu Hu ,&nbsp;Jinfeng Liang ,&nbsp;Jingyang He ,&nbsp;Wenjing Yang","doi":"10.1016/j.ecolind.2025.113292","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ecolind.2025.113292","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Habitat quality influences the capacity to preserve biodiversity, typically assessed through land use data. The Poyang Lake basin is highly biodiverse yet heavily affected by human activities. This study aims to investigate the spatial and temporal trends in land use and habitat quality within the Poyang Lake basin from 1990 to 2050. Land use, environmental, and socio-economic data from 1990 to 2020 were employed to calibrate the System Dynamics and PLUS models for predicting the land use patterns up to 2050. The InVEST model was employed to assess habitat quality based on both historical and projected land use data. Habitat quality assessment was validated using species richness of vascular plants estimated from field-sampled specimens. Our findings reveal a rapid increase in built-up land from 1990 to 2023, while forest and farmland areas have generally decreased. These land use trends are expected to continue from 2023 to 2050. Habitat quality was generally good from 1990 to 2023, but showed a declining trend. Projections suggest a further decline in habitat quality from 2023 to 2050, especially under the SSP5-8.5 scenario. Strong correlations were found between habitat quality scores and species richness of vascular plants (0.58 ≤ Pearson’s <em>r</em> ≤ 0.64), confirming the effectiveness of land use data for habitat quality assessment. Our results underscore that optimized land use planning—such as controlling the expansion of human-altered land and conserving natural vegetation—is crucial for biodiversity conservation, and also suggest that land use data can be a valuable tool for biodiversity monitoring.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11459,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Indicators","volume":"172 ","pages":"Article 113292"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143534329","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Ecological correlates of taxonomic and functional beta diversity of wetland breeding birds in central part of Inner Mongolia wetlands","authors":"Ling-Ying Shuai ,&nbsp;Yu-Xin Luo ,&nbsp;Yue Luo ,&nbsp;Jing-Wen Bai ,&nbsp;Di Meng ,&nbsp;Fu-Jia Sha ,&nbsp;Ke Shi ,&nbsp;Wan-Lan Ma ,&nbsp;Fu-Shun Zhang","doi":"10.1016/j.ecolind.2025.113302","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ecolind.2025.113302","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Wetlands in Inner Mongolia provide necessary habitats for many bird species and are considered important for biodiversity conservation. However, studies on spatial variation of bird communities within this region remain limited. In this study, we conducted a large-scale investigation on breeding birds in 30 lakes located in the central part of Inner Mongolia. We explored the ecological correlates of taxonomic and functional beta diversity among avian communities using Mantel tests. Both taxonomic and functional beta diversity were partitioned using two approaches, namely a species turnover component versus a nestedness-resultant component, and local contributions versus species contributions to the overall variation in species composition. A total of 105 breeding bird species were recorded, with 5 species considered threatened by IUCN Redlist. Although we detected a significant association between taxonomic and functional beta diversity, they differed greatly in terms of composition and ecological correlates. Taxonomic beta diversity was dominated by its turnover component, whereas functional beta diversity was dominated by its nestedness-resultant component. We found a positive relationship between dissimilarity in temperature and taxonomic beta diversity, and a positive relationship between difference in lake area and taxonomic nestedness-resultant component. No significant association was found between the environmental variables and functional beta diversity. We also detected several lakes and species that contributed most to the overall beta diversity. Species-poor lakes tended to contribute more to the overall beta diversity. While large lakes with high richness are normally considered important, our results highlighted the importance of protecting small, species-poor lakes with high ecological uniqueness.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11459,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Indicators","volume":"172 ","pages":"Article 113302"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143534331","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Can we really use design-free hydroacoustic data from fishing vessels for assessing abundance and distribution of marine species? A proof of concept analysis on Antarctic krill","authors":"J.A. Canseco ,&nbsp;E.J. Niklitschek ,&nbsp;G. Skaret","doi":"10.1016/j.ecolind.2025.113284","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ecolind.2025.113284","url":null,"abstract":"&lt;div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;em&gt;Euphausia superba&lt;/em&gt; is a well-known Antarctic crustacean of great economic and ecological importance, whose management requires accurate and precise abundance and distribution estimates. Such estimates are difficult to achieve given the remoteness, extension, and large spatio-temporal variability of its geographic distribution. Acoustic data collected on board krill fishing vessels during normal fishing operation has a great potential to enhance such abundance and distribution estimates. In the present work we test the hypothesis that design-free hydroacoustic data collected during regular fishing operations can be used to produce abundance and distribution estimates with similar accuracy and precision than design-based scientific surveys. Thus, we produced and compared distribution and abundance estimates produced using either design-free hydroacoustic data collected during regular fishing operations or design-based data from scientific surveys conducted off the South Orkney Islands during summer 2017 and 2019. Following a Bayesian geostatistical approach that considered and fitted simultaneously the spatial and temporal correlation of the data, we tested different auto-correlation structures and selected the most informative models. The comparison included the means and coefficients of variation (CV) of the probability of presence (p), conditional density (d) and relative abundance index (RAI) estimates. In addition, we also simulated scenarios of parallel and orthogonal transects and obtained RAI estimates from each scenario to compare with design-based and design-free estimates for each year. In 2017, the mean RAI estimated using design-free data (94 421 m&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt;; CV: 14 %) was ∼ 50 % higher than the one estimated with design-based data (60 232 m&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt;; CV: 42 %), both within the fishing area. In 2019, the mean RAI estimated using design-free data (509 413 m&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt; CV: 6 %) was ∼ 5-fold higher than the one obtained using design-based data (113 654 m&lt;sup&gt;2&lt;/sup&gt;; CV: 33 %) in the same area. Design-free RAI estimates were highly sensitive to extrapolating the inference area from fishing to the high-density sub-area. On the other hand, changing from an hourly-resolved spatio-temporal model to a purely spatial model resulted in neglectable changes. Despite observed differences in mean estimates, both methods identified similar areas of high presence and density of Antarctic krill north and north-west of the South Orkney Islands. The 2017 estimate from design-free data was probably affected by a larger dispersion of krill, and a less observed effective area during regular fishing operations. Our results show that despite using state-of-the-art methods for processing and analyzing design-free, acoustic data collected by the fishing fleet, it still yielded unreliable RAI estimates. The bias and uncertainty related to design-free data were reduced when parallel or orthogonal transects were applied although orthogonal ","PeriodicalId":11459,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Indicators","volume":"172 ","pages":"Article 113284"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143512338","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"eDNA-based approaches advance ecotoxicology: Insights and best practices from eDNA metabarcoding studies in evaluating stress-induced aquatic (macro-) invertebrate community composition","authors":"Martin van der Plas ,&nbsp;Krijn B. Trimbos ,&nbsp;Thijs Bosker ,&nbsp;Martina G. Vijver","doi":"10.1016/j.ecolind.2025.113269","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ecolind.2025.113269","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Aquatic ecosystems are confronted with increasing levels of anthropogenic stress, prompting the need for rapid and reliable biomonitoring methods to allow ecological risk assessment and start science-based mitigation activities. Morphology-based sampling techniques have been the cornerstone of such evaluations and can be utilized to assess the impacts of anthropogenic stress on aquatic systems. However, environmental DNA (eDNA) has emerged as a promising alternative tool for biomonitoring. Macroinvertebrate species observations are pivotal in ecotoxicological studies and water quality assessment, nonetheless, few studies have implemented eDNA methods for stress-induced macroinvertebrate community composition assessment. To this end, we performed a systematic literature review, focusing on studies that analyzed the effects of anthropogenic stressors on macroinvertebrate community composition through eDNA metabarcoding. Our study aimed to 1) assess the relation between eDNA and morphology-based data for the assessment of stress-induced macroinvertebrate community composition; 2) evaluate the current quality of stress-induced macroinvertebrate community composition eDNA studies, and 3) formulate a minimum reporting and best practices guide for future studies. Our findings reveal that eDNA-derived beta diversity serves as a robust and sensitive indicator, outperforming morphology-based observations for determining beta diversity, making it a strong tool for invertebrate community assessment within ecotoxicology. However, we observed little consistency in applied methodology and reporting among the included studies, even though standardization is desired to increase the reproducibility and reliability of scientific research. To this end, we propose minimum reporting standards and a best practice guide for future studies, which will allow a wider and more systematic integration of eDNA metabarcoding to assess stress-induced (macro-) invertebrate community composition.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11459,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Indicators","volume":"172 ","pages":"Article 113269"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143512339","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Stronger tree size-mortality association with increasing droughts and basal areas: A meta-analysis","authors":"Bradley Nixon ,&nbsp;William Hammond ,&nbsp;Chris Zou ,&nbsp;Lu Zhai","doi":"10.1016/j.ecolind.2025.113326","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ecolind.2025.113326","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Given the escalating tree death rates with increasing drought disturbances, it’s imperative to enhance the mortality predictions for more informed management strategies to preserve forest resources. Tree size could serve as an indicator of tree mortality under drought, as theoretical studies have demonstrated that larger trees, due to their more susceptible hydraulic structures, are more likely to die during droughts. However, empirical studies have presented inconsistent findings regarding the relationship between tree size and mortality, challenging the importance of tree size in projecting drought-induced tree mortality. The variability in this relationship has not been thoroughly quantified, particularly under increasing drought impacts, such as greater drought magnitudes (including intensity and duration), warming temperature and larger stand basal area. We compiled 52 case studies at a global scale and conducted a <em>meta</em>-analysis to explore how the correlation between tree size and mortality fluctuates under drought. Our results showed that: (1) The correlation coefficients of tree size-mortality varied significantly across the studies analyzed, and ∼ 40 % of them reported a positive correlation, i.e., larger trees experienced higher mortality; (2) The correlation coefficients increased with drought intensity, drought duration, maximum temperature during drought, and stand basal area. Our results suggest a stronger association of tree size with tree mortality under intensified and prolonged droughts and greater basal areas. Thus, with the increasing droughts under climate change, tree size tends to play an increasing important role in projecting tree mortality. Moreover, management practices, e.g., thinning, could manipulate basal area to influence the tree size-mortality relationship.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11459,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Indicators","volume":"172 ","pages":"Article 113326"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143593082","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Using handheld mobile laser scanning to quantify fine-scale surface fuels and detect changes post-disturbance in northern California forests","authors":"Alanna J. Post ,&nbsp;Brieanne Forbes ,&nbsp;Zane Cooper ,&nbsp;Kristi Faro ,&nbsp;Catherine Seel ,&nbsp;Matthew Clark ,&nbsp;Mathias Disney ,&nbsp;Lisa Patrick Bentley","doi":"10.1016/j.ecolind.2025.113276","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ecolind.2025.113276","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The understory plays a critical role in the disturbance dynamics of forest, as it influences wildfire behavior. Unfortunately, the structure of understory fuels is difficult to quantify due to heterogeneity. LiDAR can measure changes in forest structure more rapidly, comprehensively, and accurately than manual approaches, but remote sensing is more frequently applied to the overstory. We evaluated the use of handheld mobile laser scanning (HMLS) to measure changes in fine-scale surface fuels following wildfire and timber harvest in Northern Californian forests, USA. The ability of HMLS to quantify surface fuels was validated by destructively sampling vegetation within a 3D frame and comparing destructive-based volumes with HMLS-based occupied volume estimates. There was a positive linear relationship between volume estimates, and occupied volume estimated from 1-cm voxels had the best relationship with measured biomass compared to larger voxel sizes. Next, HMLS was used to scan forest plots where wildfire or timber harvest occurred, producing bi-temporal structural measurements. Plot level HMLS estimates without ground voxels revealed regrowth of live vegetation one-year post-fire that was not apparent from field measurements collected via Brown’s transects. Comparison between Brown’s transects and HMLS estimate showed similar decreases in surface fuels post-wildfire, further indicating that the increase in estimated volume one-year post-fire comes from vegetation regrowth rather than dead fuel accumulation. HMLS can be a valuable tool for land stewards to rapidly quantify understory vegetation, especially following disturbance. Assessing understory vegetation is crucial for reducing wildfire risk and fuels might not be captured fully post-wildfire using traditional approaches.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":11459,"journal":{"name":"Ecological Indicators","volume":"172 ","pages":"Article 113276"},"PeriodicalIF":7.0,"publicationDate":"2025-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143534332","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}