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Publications

NIBIOs employees contribute to several hundred scientific articles and research reports every year. You can browse or search in our collection which contains references and links to these publications as well as other research and dissemination activities. The collection is continously updated with new and historical material.

2005

Abstract

Time since death and time since fall were estimated for hybrid spruce (Picea glauca (Moench) Voss Picea engelmannii Parry ex Engelm.) and subalpine fir (Abies lasiocarpa (Hook.) Nutt.) logs to quantify temporal changes in log decay and habitat quality in east-central British Columbia. We sampled 136 logs (72 spruce and 64 fir) for species, size, and morphological attributes and used dendroecological techniques to estimate year of death (n = 97) and fall (n = 122).Time since death and time since fall of spruce and fir were similar in decay classes 1 and 2; fir was older than spruce in more advanced stages of decay. Discriminant analysis based on time since fall correctly classified logs into four decay classes for 67% and 80% of spruce and fir, respectively.Function as wildlife habitat changed significantly as logs decayed. Logs served as elevated runways for approximately 15 years and then increased in value as habitat for invertebrates and insectivores as wood softened and vegetation established. Concealed spaces increased as the wood decomposed but decreased when logs collapsed.We conclude that decay classes represent biologically and statistically significant stages of log decomposition that are relevant to wildlife habitat and therefore provide a useful construct for model development and field interpretation.

Abstract

Horizontal subsurface flow constructed wetlands have proven their efficiency in treating wastewater and removing the pollutants of concern. Treatment efficiency depends on the wastewater residence time, which is a function of the hydraulic loading and the physical conditions of the constructed filter system, which can be described with effective parameters such as: hydraulic conductivity, porosity, dispersivity etc. Because spatial variability is often scale dependent, these effective parameters may be affected by the scale of the system being studied. In this paper the results of tracer experiments in constructed filters using saturated horizontal flow at three scales (small and medium lab scales and full-scale system) using the same filter media is reported. Light-weight aggregate (filter media termed Filtralite-pTM) was used at all scales. Increasing the scale was associated with increasing dispersivity, meanwhile hydraulic conductivity experienced dramatic reduction and variation by increasing the examined scale. Observed changes in the hydraulic parameters indicate that heterogeneity at dtfferent scales should be taken into account when the performance of LWA filters are evaluated from small-scale experiments.

Abstract

Forest ecosystems provide many deliverables or benefits to society. The most obvious one is wood for the forest industry. Other benefits include berries, hunting, and recreation. More recently recognised benefits are environmental services such as carbon sequestration, water protection and biodiversity, which are without an immediate market value.On the other hand, there are pressures (e.g. climate change, air pollution, exploitation, and costs) on the ecosystem that may hamper the wood production or other benefits......

Abstract

Forest damage will result in two general effects: defoliation and/or discolouration. The two available techniques in remote sensing of forests today, LiDAR and spectroscopy, are promising tools for monitoring these two, respectively. Merging data on foliar mass, estimated by LiDAR, with data on chlorophyll concentrations, estimated by spectroscopy, can provide data on chlorophyll mass pr area unit. Monitoring the temporal changes of this is likely to be a very good measure for variations in forest health.In order to check out the possibilities for this, we are now working on building relationships between foliar mass data and LiDAR data for single spruce trees. In total we have measurements of position and stem diameter on about 2000 trees distributed on 16 plots, where 64 trees are intensively sampled for estimating foliar mass, as well as crown size.We need to parameterize a relationship between the LiDAR data for each of these trees and their foliar mass (or leaf area). If we succeed to build this relationship, we will scale it up to provide foliar mass (or leaf area) estimates for every 10x10 m pixels in two SPOT images of the area.Together with a similar up-scaling of chlorophyll concentrations, based on spectroscopy, we will test the possibility of estimating chlorophyll mass per area from SPOT or other satellites. In addition, we have visually assessed data on crown density for all the trees, being a rough, but valuable data-set for validating the relationship.The work, being in progress now, includes several tasks:a) finding an appropriate canopy surface modelb) segmentation of treesc) estimating crown volume, and evt d) handling of smaller trees standing below (this is a heterogenous canopy layer forest) and e) handling of the relative influence of stem and branches.Additionally, we see some other benefits from using LiDAR together with airborne hyperspectral data and satellite data in general. Firstly, the combination of high resolution LiDAR and hyper-spectral data, is a good basis for separating the signals from ground vegetation and from the tree canopy. Secondly, LiDAR provides both a DTM and a canopy surface model, and they are two alternative surface models for the geo-referencing of other data, and for appropriate handling of effects of shadowing and obstacles from tall trees.