Pub Date : 2023-08-14DOI: 10.1093/forestry/cpad041
Bo-Hao Perng, Tzeng Yih Lam, Sheng-Hsin Su, Mohamad Danial Bin Md Sabri, David Burslem, Dairon Cardenas, Álvaro Duque, Sisira Ediriweera, Nimal Gunatilleke, Vojtech Novotny, Michael J O’Brien, Glen Reynolds
Abstract Conserving plant diversity is integral to sustainable forest management. This study aims at diversifying tools to map spatial distribution of species richness. We develop a sampling strategy of using rapid assessments by local communities to gather prior information on species richness distribution to drive census cell selection by sampling with covariate designs. An artificial neural network model is built to predict the spatial patterns. Accuracy and consistency of rapid assessment factors, sample selection methods, and sampling intensity of census cells were tested in a simulation study with seven 25–50-ha census plots in the tropics and subtropics. Results showed that identifying more plant individuals in a rapid assessment improved accuracy and consistency, while transect was comparable to or slightly better than nearest-neighbor assessment, but knowing more species had little effects. Results of sampling with covariate designs depended on covariates. The covariate Ifreq, inverse of the frequency of the rapidly assessed species richness strata, was the best choice. List sampling and local pivotal method with Ifreq increased accuracy by 0.7%–1.6% and consistency by 7.6%–12.0% for 5% to 20% sampling intensity. This study recommends a rapid assessment method of selecting 20 individuals at every 20-m interval along a transect. Knowing at least half of the species in a forest that are abundant is sufficient. Local pivotal method is recommended at 5% sampling intensity or less. This study presents a methodology to directly involve local communities in probability-based forest resource assessment to support decision-making in forest management.
{"title":"Integrating rapid assessment, variable probability sampling, and machine learning to improve accuracy and consistency in mapping local spatial distribution of plant species richness","authors":"Bo-Hao Perng, Tzeng Yih Lam, Sheng-Hsin Su, Mohamad Danial Bin Md Sabri, David Burslem, Dairon Cardenas, Álvaro Duque, Sisira Ediriweera, Nimal Gunatilleke, Vojtech Novotny, Michael J O’Brien, Glen Reynolds","doi":"10.1093/forestry/cpad041","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/forestry/cpad041","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Conserving plant diversity is integral to sustainable forest management. This study aims at diversifying tools to map spatial distribution of species richness. We develop a sampling strategy of using rapid assessments by local communities to gather prior information on species richness distribution to drive census cell selection by sampling with covariate designs. An artificial neural network model is built to predict the spatial patterns. Accuracy and consistency of rapid assessment factors, sample selection methods, and sampling intensity of census cells were tested in a simulation study with seven 25–50-ha census plots in the tropics and subtropics. Results showed that identifying more plant individuals in a rapid assessment improved accuracy and consistency, while transect was comparable to or slightly better than nearest-neighbor assessment, but knowing more species had little effects. Results of sampling with covariate designs depended on covariates. The covariate Ifreq, inverse of the frequency of the rapidly assessed species richness strata, was the best choice. List sampling and local pivotal method with Ifreq increased accuracy by 0.7%–1.6% and consistency by 7.6%–12.0% for 5% to 20% sampling intensity. This study recommends a rapid assessment method of selecting 20 individuals at every 20-m interval along a transect. Knowing at least half of the species in a forest that are abundant is sufficient. Local pivotal method is recommended at 5% sampling intensity or less. This study presents a methodology to directly involve local communities in probability-based forest resource assessment to support decision-making in forest management.","PeriodicalId":12342,"journal":{"name":"Forestry","volume":"52 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-08-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135265439","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Abstract COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic on 11 March 2020 and has meant entire populations have experienced a significant change in lifestyle. Restrictions in England occurred through a series of phases from a lockdown through to the opening of shops and facilities. The initial restrictions led to a strong media focus on nature and getting outdoors for exercise and mental well-being. Alongside this but not related to COVID-19, there is a strong policy focus on forest creation and expansion in England with debate about where new forests might be created, what benefits they might provide, and to whom. In this research, we explored, for those with an existing interest in nature, whether this connection to nature and specifically to trees and forests could support people in coping with the restrictions they faced during the pandemic. We carried out an online survey in England in June/July 2020 and received 3333 qualitative comments. We then carried out 25 follow-up interviews in August/September 2020 with a sample of those who had completed the survey. We use the Kübler-Ross change curve as a lens to explore people’s reactions and responses to the significant changes brought about by the COVID-19 crisis, with a focus on their experiences relating to trees and forests. The results highlight that some people did move through the four stages of change outlined in the Kübler-Ross framework, although not always in a linear process, from shock and denial, to resistance, to exploration, and adaptation. The change curve model proved useful in this study but also had some limitations. Engagement with forests supported some adaptation as well as exploration through people undertaking new activities, visiting local spaces, and spending more time outdoors with their children. We also found that the benefits of engaging with trees and forests could help to support people’s well-being in times of high anxiety. The study highlights the importance of trees and forests as part of people’s lives, and the role they can play in supporting them when faced with major challenges.
{"title":"Trees and forests’ contribution to well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic in England: how did people adapt to change?","authors":"Liz O’Brien, Mandy Cook, Clare Hall, Bianca Ambrose-Oji","doi":"10.1093/forestry/cpad037","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/forestry/cpad037","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic on 11 March 2020 and has meant entire populations have experienced a significant change in lifestyle. Restrictions in England occurred through a series of phases from a lockdown through to the opening of shops and facilities. The initial restrictions led to a strong media focus on nature and getting outdoors for exercise and mental well-being. Alongside this but not related to COVID-19, there is a strong policy focus on forest creation and expansion in England with debate about where new forests might be created, what benefits they might provide, and to whom. In this research, we explored, for those with an existing interest in nature, whether this connection to nature and specifically to trees and forests could support people in coping with the restrictions they faced during the pandemic. We carried out an online survey in England in June/July 2020 and received 3333 qualitative comments. We then carried out 25 follow-up interviews in August/September 2020 with a sample of those who had completed the survey. We use the Kübler-Ross change curve as a lens to explore people’s reactions and responses to the significant changes brought about by the COVID-19 crisis, with a focus on their experiences relating to trees and forests. The results highlight that some people did move through the four stages of change outlined in the Kübler-Ross framework, although not always in a linear process, from shock and denial, to resistance, to exploration, and adaptation. The change curve model proved useful in this study but also had some limitations. Engagement with forests supported some adaptation as well as exploration through people undertaking new activities, visiting local spaces, and spending more time outdoors with their children. We also found that the benefits of engaging with trees and forests could help to support people’s well-being in times of high anxiety. The study highlights the importance of trees and forests as part of people’s lives, and the role they can play in supporting them when faced with major challenges.","PeriodicalId":12342,"journal":{"name":"Forestry","volume":"25 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-07-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135708393","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-02-25DOI: 10.1093/forestry/cpad008
Dorota Tumialis, Anna Mazurkiewicz, Lidia Florczak, Iwona Skrzecz
Abstract Protecting stands of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) from the larvae of the pine lappet moth (Dendrolimus pini) has been a problem for many years in Central Europe. The feeding habits of the larvae of D. pini often result in more than 50 per cent defoliation, which weakens trees and increases their susceptibility to unfavourable environmental conditions. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of native isolates of the entomopathogenic nematodes Steinernema feltiae (Filipjev, 1934) and Heterorhabditis megidis (Poinar, Jackson and Klein, 1987), as well as of the commercial preparations Nemamax (Heterorhabditis downesi) (Stock, Griffin and Burnell), Entonem (S. feltiae) and E-nema GmbH (S. carpocapsae) in greenhouse experiments and field trials. The highest extensity of infection (>80 per cent) of the pine lappet moth with nematodes in the greenhouse experiments studies was found for the strain S. feltiae ZAG15. In field trials, a greater effectiveness was obtained using commercial preparations of S. feltiae (Entonem), which led to approximately a twofold reduction in the number of wintering D. pini larvae. The results of this study indicate that entomopathogenic nematodes can be considered a potential biological control agent for reducing the damage caused by D. pini larvae.
保护苏格兰松(Pinus sylvestris)林分免受松垂蛾(Dendrolimus pini)幼虫的侵害一直是中欧地区多年来面临的问题。松叶线虫幼虫的摄食习惯常常导致50%以上的落叶,这使树木变弱,使它们更容易受到不利环境条件的影响。本研究的目的是在温室试验和田间试验中评估昆虫病原线虫Steinernema feltiae (Filipjev, 1934)和megidis Heterorhabditis (Poinar, Jackson and Klein, 1987)的本地分离株的有效性,以及商业制剂Nemamax (Heterorhabditis downesi) (Stock, Griffin and Burnell)、Entonem (s feltiae)和E-nema GmbH (s carpocapsae)的有效性。在温室试验研究中,发现菌株S. feltiae ZAG15对线虫的感染程度最高(> 80%)。在田间试验中,使用商业制剂获得了更大的效果,使越冬松毛虫幼虫的数量减少了大约两倍。本研究结果表明,昆虫病原线虫可作为一种潜在的生物防治剂,以减少松毛虫幼虫对松毛虫的危害。
{"title":"The potential of entomopathogenic nematodes of the genera <i>Steinernema</i> and <i>Heterorhabditis</i> for biological control of the pine lappet moth <i>Dendrolimus pini</i> L. (Lepidoptera: Lasiocampidae) in Scots pine stands","authors":"Dorota Tumialis, Anna Mazurkiewicz, Lidia Florczak, Iwona Skrzecz","doi":"10.1093/forestry/cpad008","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/forestry/cpad008","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Protecting stands of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) from the larvae of the pine lappet moth (Dendrolimus pini) has been a problem for many years in Central Europe. The feeding habits of the larvae of D. pini often result in more than 50 per cent defoliation, which weakens trees and increases their susceptibility to unfavourable environmental conditions. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of native isolates of the entomopathogenic nematodes Steinernema feltiae (Filipjev, 1934) and Heterorhabditis megidis (Poinar, Jackson and Klein, 1987), as well as of the commercial preparations Nemamax (Heterorhabditis downesi) (Stock, Griffin and Burnell), Entonem (S. feltiae) and E-nema GmbH (S. carpocapsae) in greenhouse experiments and field trials. The highest extensity of infection (&gt;80 per cent) of the pine lappet moth with nematodes in the greenhouse experiments studies was found for the strain S. feltiae ZAG15. In field trials, a greater effectiveness was obtained using commercial preparations of S. feltiae (Entonem), which led to approximately a twofold reduction in the number of wintering D. pini larvae. The results of this study indicate that entomopathogenic nematodes can be considered a potential biological control agent for reducing the damage caused by D. pini larvae.","PeriodicalId":12342,"journal":{"name":"Forestry","volume":"206 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136081717","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-02-14DOI: 10.1093/forestry/cpad003
Jiří Dvořák, Martin Jankovský, Mariusz Kormanek, Pavel Natov, Pavel Straka
Abstract As a renewable fuel, logging residues, as well as other dendromass, are in high demand. On the other hand, they can serve as a natural fertilizer and stabilize biodiversity in forest ecosystems. Therefore, they need to be used rationally, with due care for the volumes extracted from a particular stand. The volume of logging residues is difficult to measure; thus, foresters need a tool to estimate it, ideally via a simple method based on easily measurable parameters. Conversion factors, based on tree stem volume can serve this purpose. In this study, we develop such conversion factors for thinnings of Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst.) stands. First, we analyzed the relationship between the tree stem volume (ranging between 0.03 and 0.44 m3 stem−1) and the volumes of related logging residues or wood chips via linear regression and correlation analysis. Then, we assessed the significance of differences between volumes of logging residues or wood chips for trees in the five relevant stem volume classes and determined appropriate conversion factors. The conversion factors for wood chips ranged between 1.37 loose cubic meters of logging residue per cubic meter of timber in the largest stem volume class to 2.17 for the smallest stem volume class. The model, on which the conversion factors were based had a coefficient of determination of 0.88. Conversion to logging residue volume yielded factors ranging from 2.2 stacked cubic meters per cubic meter of timber for the largest stem volume class to 10.2 in the smallest stem volume class. The coefficient of determination of the underlying model was 0.69. The conversion factors are based on sufficiently accurate models and can be used in practical forestry for planning purposes, recordkeeping, and remuneration of loggers.
{"title":"Conversion of Norway spruce (<i>Picea abies (L.) H. Karst.</i>) tree stem volume to volumes of produced logging residues and wood chips","authors":"Jiří Dvořák, Martin Jankovský, Mariusz Kormanek, Pavel Natov, Pavel Straka","doi":"10.1093/forestry/cpad003","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/forestry/cpad003","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract As a renewable fuel, logging residues, as well as other dendromass, are in high demand. On the other hand, they can serve as a natural fertilizer and stabilize biodiversity in forest ecosystems. Therefore, they need to be used rationally, with due care for the volumes extracted from a particular stand. The volume of logging residues is difficult to measure; thus, foresters need a tool to estimate it, ideally via a simple method based on easily measurable parameters. Conversion factors, based on tree stem volume can serve this purpose. In this study, we develop such conversion factors for thinnings of Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst.) stands. First, we analyzed the relationship between the tree stem volume (ranging between 0.03 and 0.44 m3 stem−1) and the volumes of related logging residues or wood chips via linear regression and correlation analysis. Then, we assessed the significance of differences between volumes of logging residues or wood chips for trees in the five relevant stem volume classes and determined appropriate conversion factors. The conversion factors for wood chips ranged between 1.37 loose cubic meters of logging residue per cubic meter of timber in the largest stem volume class to 2.17 for the smallest stem volume class. The model, on which the conversion factors were based had a coefficient of determination of 0.88. Conversion to logging residue volume yielded factors ranging from 2.2 stacked cubic meters per cubic meter of timber for the largest stem volume class to 10.2 in the smallest stem volume class. The coefficient of determination of the underlying model was 0.69. The conversion factors are based on sufficiently accurate models and can be used in practical forestry for planning purposes, recordkeeping, and remuneration of loggers.","PeriodicalId":12342,"journal":{"name":"Forestry","volume":"8 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-02-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135797342","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-01-04DOI: 10.1093/forestry/cpac061
Tyler S Gifford, John M Zobel, Scott C Hillard, Christopher B Edgar
Abstract Aspen (Populus spp.) exists as a forest type with circumboreal significance. In Minnesota, aspen is the most abundant and utilized timber species. Dating from 1929 to as recently as 2019, many whole stand volume yield models have been developed for the aspen forest type in Minnesota. With many model forms to choose from, this work sought to narrow down the best performing models across a myriad of forest conditions and locations. Data from recent cycles of the U.S. Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis program were utilized for model fitting and assessment. Existing model forms were assessed, as well as 423 new model forms. Models were cross validated and compared with predictive accuracy statistics including root mean square error, mean absolute deviation and an agreement index (pseudo-R2). Analyses were conducted to evaluate model performance in relevant subsets, including: statewide, ecological section, age class and site class. To reflect model complexity and differences in available inventory data, models were also assessed by the number of required input variables. A newly postulated model form, the GZ model, provided improved accuracy across all subset scenarios, whereas a recently developed model form provided simplicity and applicability across many subsets. This work provides users of aspen whole stand volume yield models with a method to review model forms fit under a variety of conditions and select the most appropriate model.
{"title":"Comprehensive review and evaluation of whole stand volume yield models for the aspen forest type in Minnesota, USA","authors":"Tyler S Gifford, John M Zobel, Scott C Hillard, Christopher B Edgar","doi":"10.1093/forestry/cpac061","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/forestry/cpac061","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Aspen (Populus spp.) exists as a forest type with circumboreal significance. In Minnesota, aspen is the most abundant and utilized timber species. Dating from 1929 to as recently as 2019, many whole stand volume yield models have been developed for the aspen forest type in Minnesota. With many model forms to choose from, this work sought to narrow down the best performing models across a myriad of forest conditions and locations. Data from recent cycles of the U.S. Forest Service, Forest Inventory and Analysis program were utilized for model fitting and assessment. Existing model forms were assessed, as well as 423 new model forms. Models were cross validated and compared with predictive accuracy statistics including root mean square error, mean absolute deviation and an agreement index (pseudo-R2). Analyses were conducted to evaluate model performance in relevant subsets, including: statewide, ecological section, age class and site class. To reflect model complexity and differences in available inventory data, models were also assessed by the number of required input variables. A newly postulated model form, the GZ model, provided improved accuracy across all subset scenarios, whereas a recently developed model form provided simplicity and applicability across many subsets. This work provides users of aspen whole stand volume yield models with a method to review model forms fit under a variety of conditions and select the most appropriate model.","PeriodicalId":12342,"journal":{"name":"Forestry","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-01-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135500706","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-18DOI: 10.1093/forestry/cpac053
Laura Alonso, Andrés Rodríguez, Juan Picos, Julia Armesto
Up-to-date knowledge about changes in forest resources and their spatial distribution is essential for sustainable forest management. Therefore, monitoring of forest evolution is increasingly demanded by national and international agencies to design forestry policies and to track their progress. Annually updated land cover maps based on open access satellite imagery may serve as a primary tool for monitoring forest surface evolution over time. Spatially detailed information about forest change might be obtained by comparing land cover maps over time. This study aims to better understand the processes underlying pixels whose land cover changes from 1 year’s map to the next and to understand why errors occur. In this study, two annual land cover maps were produced using Sentinel-2 images and afterwards they were compared. The comparison was performed in terms of total surface occupied in each map by each of the classes (net comparison) and in terms of spatial agreement, comparing the results pixel to pixel. The study was performed for the entire region of Galicia (in the Northwest of Spain) for the years 2019 and 2020. Land cover maps obtained had overall accuracies of 82 and 85 per cent. Differences in the total surface of change were encountered when performing the net comparison and spatial agreement comparison. The detailed analysis performed in this study helps to better understand the processes underlying the maps’ discrepancies revealing the processes leading to wrongly identified forest changes. Future studies could aim to integrate this knowledge into the monitoring system to improve the ultimate usability of land cover maps to retrieve information about forest changes.
{"title":"Challenges in automatic forest change reporting through land cover mapping","authors":"Laura Alonso, Andrés Rodríguez, Juan Picos, Julia Armesto","doi":"10.1093/forestry/cpac053","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/forestry/cpac053","url":null,"abstract":"Up-to-date knowledge about changes in forest resources and their spatial distribution is essential for sustainable forest management. Therefore, monitoring of forest evolution is increasingly demanded by national and international agencies to design forestry policies and to track their progress. Annually updated land cover maps based on open access satellite imagery may serve as a primary tool for monitoring forest surface evolution over time. Spatially detailed information about forest change might be obtained by comparing land cover maps over time. This study aims to better understand the processes underlying pixels whose land cover changes from 1 year’s map to the next and to understand why errors occur. In this study, two annual land cover maps were produced using Sentinel-2 images and afterwards they were compared. The comparison was performed in terms of total surface occupied in each map by each of the classes (net comparison) and in terms of spatial agreement, comparing the results pixel to pixel. The study was performed for the entire region of Galicia (in the Northwest of Spain) for the years 2019 and 2020. Land cover maps obtained had overall accuracies of 82 and 85 per cent. Differences in the total surface of change were encountered when performing the net comparison and spatial agreement comparison. The detailed analysis performed in this study helps to better understand the processes underlying the maps’ discrepancies revealing the processes leading to wrongly identified forest changes. Future studies could aim to integrate this knowledge into the monitoring system to improve the ultimate usability of land cover maps to retrieve information about forest changes.","PeriodicalId":12342,"journal":{"name":"Forestry","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2022-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138526699","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-18DOI: 10.1093/forestry/cpac050
Tilak Chaudhary, Weimin Xi, Mukti Subedi, Sandra Rideout-Hanzak, Haibin Su, Nicholas P Dewez, Stephen Clarke
Drought-induced tree mortality has increased in many parts of the world because of climate change, and in some regions, has altered forest structure, species composition and ecosystem functions. These developments have the potential to reduce forest resilience and push forests over a tipping point to an alternate state (i.e. a different forest type or a non-forest ecosystem). Texas experienced an exceptional drought in 2011, which killed an estimated 65.5 million trees in the heavily forested areas of the East Texas region. The objective of this study was to understand the effects of the 2011 drought on mortality, biomass and growth in this region and explore forest stability at species, forest and ecoregion levels. We categorized 19 years’ time-series data of 1455 Forest Inventory and Analysis plots into four periods, base (2001–2003), pre-drought (2004–2010), drought (2011–2016) and post-drought (2017–2019), and used repeated-measures analysis of variance to analyse annual mortality, biomass loss, growth rates and the Forest Stability Index to understand forest stability. Our results show that tree mortality and biomass loss increased significantly during the drought period and annual growth rates declined. During the post-drought period, mortality and biomass loss rates returned to the pre-drought level and growth partially recovered. During the drought period, FSI dropped at species, forest type and ecoregion levels but recovered during the post-drought period, except for the Oak Woods and Prairies ecoregion and for forests dominated by southern red oak. Our results indicate that East Texas forests are undergoing a reorganization and recovery stage (in terms of species composition and stand structure) but have yet to reach a tipping point. Given the increased frequency and severity of climate change-induced weather events, East Texas forests could approach a tipping point in the future if there is insufficient time between events for reorganization and recovery. Further analyses are needed to understand the fate of tree species and forests in East Texas under global climate change.
{"title":"East Texas forests show strong resilience to exceptional drought","authors":"Tilak Chaudhary, Weimin Xi, Mukti Subedi, Sandra Rideout-Hanzak, Haibin Su, Nicholas P Dewez, Stephen Clarke","doi":"10.1093/forestry/cpac050","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/forestry/cpac050","url":null,"abstract":"Drought-induced tree mortality has increased in many parts of the world because of climate change, and in some regions, has altered forest structure, species composition and ecosystem functions. These developments have the potential to reduce forest resilience and push forests over a tipping point to an alternate state (i.e. a different forest type or a non-forest ecosystem). Texas experienced an exceptional drought in 2011, which killed an estimated 65.5 million trees in the heavily forested areas of the East Texas region. The objective of this study was to understand the effects of the 2011 drought on mortality, biomass and growth in this region and explore forest stability at species, forest and ecoregion levels. We categorized 19 years’ time-series data of 1455 Forest Inventory and Analysis plots into four periods, base (2001–2003), pre-drought (2004–2010), drought (2011–2016) and post-drought (2017–2019), and used repeated-measures analysis of variance to analyse annual mortality, biomass loss, growth rates and the Forest Stability Index to understand forest stability. Our results show that tree mortality and biomass loss increased significantly during the drought period and annual growth rates declined. During the post-drought period, mortality and biomass loss rates returned to the pre-drought level and growth partially recovered. During the drought period, FSI dropped at species, forest type and ecoregion levels but recovered during the post-drought period, except for the Oak Woods and Prairies ecoregion and for forests dominated by southern red oak. Our results indicate that East Texas forests are undergoing a reorganization and recovery stage (in terms of species composition and stand structure) but have yet to reach a tipping point. Given the increased frequency and severity of climate change-induced weather events, East Texas forests could approach a tipping point in the future if there is insufficient time between events for reorganization and recovery. Further analyses are needed to understand the fate of tree species and forests in East Texas under global climate change.","PeriodicalId":12342,"journal":{"name":"Forestry","volume":"43 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2022-12-18","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138526673","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-09DOI: 10.1093/forestry/cpac049
Fatemeh Saba, Hooman Latifi, Mohammad Javad Valadan Zoej, Rohollah Esmaili
The Hyrcanian Forests comprise a continuous 800-km belt of mostly deciduous broadleaf forests and are considered as Iran’s most important vegetation region in terms of density, canopy cover and species diversity. One of the few evergreen species of the Hyrcanian Forests is the box tree (Buxus), which is seriously threatened by box blight disease and box tree moth outbreaks. Therefore, information on the spatial distribution of intact and infested box trees is essential for recovery monitoring, control treatment and management. To address this critical knowledge gap, we integrated a genetic algorithm (GA) with a support vector machine (SVM) ensemble classification based on the combination of leaf-off optical Sentinel-2 and radar Sentinel-1 data to map the spatial distribution of box tree mortality. We additionally considered the overstorey species composition to account for a potential impact of overstory stand composition on the spectral signature of understorey defoliation. We consequently defined target classes based on the combination of dominant overstorey trees (using two measures including the relative frequency and the diameter at breast height) and two defoliation levels of box trees (including dead and healthy box trees). Our classification workflow applied a GA to simultaneously derive optimal vegetation indices (VIs) and tuning parameters of the SVM. Then the distribution of box tree defoliation was mapped by an SVM ensemble with bagging using GA-optimized VIs and radar data. The GA results revealed that normalized difference vegetation index, red edge normalized difference vegetation index and green normalized difference vegetation index were appropriate for box tree defoliation mapping. An additional comparison of GA-SVM (using GA-optimized VIs and tuning parameters) with a simple SVM (using all VIs and user-based tuning parameters) showed that our suggested workflow performs notably better than the simple SVM (overall accuracy of 0.79 vs 0.74). Incorporating Sentinel-1 data to GA-SVM, marginally improved the performance of the model (overall accuracy: 0.80). The SVM ensemble model using Sentinel-2 and -1 data yielded high accuracies and low uncertainties in mapping of box tree defoliation. The results showed that infested box trees were mostly located at low elevations, low slope and facing north. We conclude that mortality of evergreen understorey tree species can be mapped with good accuracies using freely available satellite data if a suitable work-flow is applied.
海卡尼亚森林包括一个连续800公里的落叶阔叶林带,在密度、冠层覆盖和物种多样性方面被认为是伊朗最重要的植被区。白杨(Buxus)是海canian森林中为数不多的常绿树种之一,它受到白杨病和白杨蛾的严重威胁。因此,完整和侵染箱形树的空间分布信息对恢复监测、防治和管理具有重要意义。为了解决这一关键的知识差距,我们将遗传算法(GA)与支持向量机(SVM)集成分类相结合,基于叶片光学Sentinel-2和雷达Sentinel-1数据来绘制箱树死亡率的空间分布。我们还考虑了林分组成对林下落叶光谱特征的潜在影响。因此,我们根据优势上层树木(使用两种测量方法,包括相对频率和胸高直径)和两种落叶水平(包括死亡和健康的箱子树)的组合来定义目标类别。我们的分类工作流程采用遗传算法同时获得最优植被指数(VIs)和支持向量机的调优参数。在此基础上,利用ga优化后的可视化数据和雷达数据,利用支持向量机集合和套袋映射箱形树的落叶分布。遗传分析结果表明,归一化植被差异指数、红边归一化植被差异指数和绿色归一化植被差异指数适合于箱形树落叶制图。GA-SVM(使用ga优化的VIs和调优参数)与简单的SVM(使用所有VIs和基于用户的调优参数)的额外比较表明,我们建议的工作流表现明显优于简单的SVM(总体精度为0.79 vs 0.74)。将Sentinel-1数据与GA-SVM结合,略微提高了模型的性能(总体精度:0.80)。基于Sentinel-2和sentinel -1数据的SVM集成模型在箱形树落叶制图中具有较高的精度和较低的不确定性。结果表明,受侵染的箱子树多分布在低海拔、低坡度、朝北的位置。我们的结论是,如果采用合适的工作流程,可以使用免费的卫星数据绘制常绿林下树种的死亡率,并具有较高的精度。
{"title":"Mapping dead understorey Buxus hyrcana Pojark using Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-1 data","authors":"Fatemeh Saba, Hooman Latifi, Mohammad Javad Valadan Zoej, Rohollah Esmaili","doi":"10.1093/forestry/cpac049","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/forestry/cpac049","url":null,"abstract":"The Hyrcanian Forests comprise a continuous 800-km belt of mostly deciduous broadleaf forests and are considered as Iran’s most important vegetation region in terms of density, canopy cover and species diversity. One of the few evergreen species of the Hyrcanian Forests is the box tree (Buxus), which is seriously threatened by box blight disease and box tree moth outbreaks. Therefore, information on the spatial distribution of intact and infested box trees is essential for recovery monitoring, control treatment and management. To address this critical knowledge gap, we integrated a genetic algorithm (GA) with a support vector machine (SVM) ensemble classification based on the combination of leaf-off optical Sentinel-2 and radar Sentinel-1 data to map the spatial distribution of box tree mortality. We additionally considered the overstorey species composition to account for a potential impact of overstory stand composition on the spectral signature of understorey defoliation. We consequently defined target classes based on the combination of dominant overstorey trees (using two measures including the relative frequency and the diameter at breast height) and two defoliation levels of box trees (including dead and healthy box trees). Our classification workflow applied a GA to simultaneously derive optimal vegetation indices (VIs) and tuning parameters of the SVM. Then the distribution of box tree defoliation was mapped by an SVM ensemble with bagging using GA-optimized VIs and radar data. The GA results revealed that normalized difference vegetation index, red edge normalized difference vegetation index and green normalized difference vegetation index were appropriate for box tree defoliation mapping. An additional comparison of GA-SVM (using GA-optimized VIs and tuning parameters) with a simple SVM (using all VIs and user-based tuning parameters) showed that our suggested workflow performs notably better than the simple SVM (overall accuracy of 0.79 vs 0.74). Incorporating Sentinel-1 data to GA-SVM, marginally improved the performance of the model (overall accuracy: 0.80). The SVM ensemble model using Sentinel-2 and -1 data yielded high accuracies and low uncertainties in mapping of box tree defoliation. The results showed that infested box trees were mostly located at low elevations, low slope and facing north. We conclude that mortality of evergreen understorey tree species can be mapped with good accuracies using freely available satellite data if a suitable work-flow is applied.","PeriodicalId":12342,"journal":{"name":"Forestry","volume":"18 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2022-12-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138526700","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-11-28DOI: 10.1093/forestry/cpac048
Miłosz Tkaczyk
The phenomenon of hhh Europe has been observed for over 100 years. In this time, many attempts have been made to describe this phenomenon considering biotic, abiotic and anthropogenic factors. Recently, an increasing intensity of bacterial tree diseases has been observed both in Europe and around the world. Moreover, climate change is contributing to an increase in the range of pathogens. The aim of this publication was to highlight the most important bacterial diseases occurring on oaks around the world, and to discuss the potential threat to native oaks occurring in Central Europe: English oak (Quercus robur L.) and sessile oak (Quercus petraea (Matt.) Liebl.). The main focus was on three diseases caused by different bacteria: bacterial leaf streak (caused by Xylella fastidiosa), acute oak decline (caused by Gibbsiella quercinecans, Rahnella victoriana and Brenneria goodwinii) and drippy nut disease (caused by Brenneria quercina—formerly Erwinia quercina). At present, these are the only known bacterial diseases that cause damage to oak stands. Information on each of the above-mentioned diseases is given in the review, ranging from their origin, importance, list of host plants and their potential threat to native oaks of Central Europe.
{"title":"Worldwide review of bacterial diseases of oaks (Quercus sp.) and their potential threat to trees in Central Europe","authors":"Miłosz Tkaczyk","doi":"10.1093/forestry/cpac048","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/forestry/cpac048","url":null,"abstract":"The phenomenon of hhh Europe has been observed for over 100 years. In this time, many attempts have been made to describe this phenomenon considering biotic, abiotic and anthropogenic factors. Recently, an increasing intensity of bacterial tree diseases has been observed both in Europe and around the world. Moreover, climate change is contributing to an increase in the range of pathogens. The aim of this publication was to highlight the most important bacterial diseases occurring on oaks around the world, and to discuss the potential threat to native oaks occurring in Central Europe: English oak (Quercus robur L.) and sessile oak (Quercus petraea (Matt.) Liebl.). The main focus was on three diseases caused by different bacteria: bacterial leaf streak (caused by Xylella fastidiosa), acute oak decline (caused by Gibbsiella quercinecans, Rahnella victoriana and Brenneria goodwinii) and drippy nut disease (caused by Brenneria quercina—formerly Erwinia quercina). At present, these are the only known bacterial diseases that cause damage to oak stands. Information on each of the above-mentioned diseases is given in the review, ranging from their origin, importance, list of host plants and their potential threat to native oaks of Central Europe.","PeriodicalId":12342,"journal":{"name":"Forestry","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2022-11-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138526677","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-11-09DOI: 10.1093/forestry/cpac045
Mária Potterf, Marek Svitok, Pavel Mezei, Benjamín Jarčuška, Rastislav Jakuš, Miroslav Blaženec, Tomáš Hlásny
Forest disturbances are intensifying globally, yet regional drivers of these dynamics remain poorly understood. We investigated recent disturbance intensities in Norway spruce (Picea abies L.) forests in Slovakia (Central Europe) with different management objectives in 2000–2017 based on Landsat imagery. We focused on 122 strict reserves without any management, their actively managed surroundings (500 m and 2000 m buffers), and managed production forests beyond the buffer areas. We used generalized additive mixed models to test for differences in temporal trends of disturbance intensity among these management categories. We found that disturbance intensity was increasing in all management categories during the studied period. The increase was more pronounced in the managed forests (compound annual disturbance rate 1.76% year−1) and the 2000 m buffer (2.21% year−1) than in the strict reserves (0.58% year−1). The predicted cumulative disturbance during the 18-year period was 9.9% in the reserves and 30.5% in the 2000 m buffer. We found that forests in nature reserves can be more resistant to disturbances than forests managed for timber production, despite management efforts to control disturbances in managed forests. Our findings can help reconcile the different perceptions of natural disturbances and their management in Central Europe and support climate-adapted management strategies that consider natural disturbances as an indispensable component of ecosystem dynamics.
{"title":"Contrasting Norway spruce disturbance dynamics in managed forests and strict forest reserves in Slovakia","authors":"Mária Potterf, Marek Svitok, Pavel Mezei, Benjamín Jarčuška, Rastislav Jakuš, Miroslav Blaženec, Tomáš Hlásny","doi":"10.1093/forestry/cpac045","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1093/forestry/cpac045","url":null,"abstract":"Forest disturbances are intensifying globally, yet regional drivers of these dynamics remain poorly understood. We investigated recent disturbance intensities in Norway spruce (Picea abies L.) forests in Slovakia (Central Europe) with different management objectives in 2000–2017 based on Landsat imagery. We focused on 122 strict reserves without any management, their actively managed surroundings (500 m and 2000 m buffers), and managed production forests beyond the buffer areas. We used generalized additive mixed models to test for differences in temporal trends of disturbance intensity among these management categories. We found that disturbance intensity was increasing in all management categories during the studied period. The increase was more pronounced in the managed forests (compound annual disturbance rate 1.76% year−1) and the 2000 m buffer (2.21% year−1) than in the strict reserves (0.58% year−1). The predicted cumulative disturbance during the 18-year period was 9.9% in the reserves and 30.5% in the 2000 m buffer. We found that forests in nature reserves can be more resistant to disturbances than forests managed for timber production, despite management efforts to control disturbances in managed forests. Our findings can help reconcile the different perceptions of natural disturbances and their management in Central Europe and support climate-adapted management strategies that consider natural disturbances as an indispensable component of ecosystem dynamics.","PeriodicalId":12342,"journal":{"name":"Forestry","volume":"323 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":2.8,"publicationDate":"2022-11-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138526678","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}