Forest canopy gaps are important to ecosystem dynamics. Depending on tree species, small canopy openings may be associated with intra-crown porosity and with space among crowns. Yet, literature on the relationships between very fine-scaled patterns o...
Forest gaps are important structural elements in forest ecology to which various conservation-relevant, photophilic species are associated. To automatically map forest gaps and detect their changes over time, we developed a method based on Digital Su...
Terrestrial laser scanners (TLS) have the potential to revolutionise measurement of the three-dimensional structure of vegetation canopies for applications in ecology, hydrology and climate change. This potential has been the subject of recent resear...
Canopy gaps and their associated processes play an important role in shaping forest structure and dynamics. Understanding the information about canopy gaps allows forest managers to assess the potential for regeneration and plan interventions to enha...
The study of density and growth of pine, birch and oak seedlings and saplings in canopy gaps in the urban boreal forest in Riga, Latvia, indicates that natural regeneration can increase diversity in small gaps caused by tree mortality, and can ensure...
Canopy gaps are pivotal for monitoring forest ecosystem dynamics. Conventional field methods are time-consuming and labor intensive, making them impractical for regional mapping and systematic monitoring. Gaps may be delineated using airborne lidar o...
Forest degradation continues to increase globally, threatening biodiversity and the survival of species. In this context, identifying intact, old-growth forest stands is both urgent and vital to ensure their existence and multiple contributions to so...
Trace metals can enter natural regions with low human disturbance through atmospheric circulation; however, little information is available regarding the filtering efficiency of trace metals by forest canopies. In this study, a representative subalpi...
A reliable estimation and monitoring of tree canopy cover or shade distribution is essential for a sustainable cocoa production via agroforestry systems. Remote sensing (RS) data offer great potential in retrieving and monitoring vegetation status at...
Canopy gaps are small-scale openings in forest canopies which offer suitable micro-climatic conditions for tree regeneration. Field mapping of gaps is complex and time-consuming. Several studies have used Canopy Height Models (CHM) derived from airbo...
This paper investigates how variation in forest structural characteristics affects the water retention capacity of gaps and forests in fir-beech forests in the Dinaric Karst. Forests are identified as a key element of the landscape for provision of p...
Background: Understorey plants are key to maintaining forest structure and functioning. They protect the soil, improve its structure and fertility, reduce water run-off and sustain the below-ground biota, amongst other ecological services. However, l...
Insect communities in tropical forests tend to be structured vertically and with respect to tree fall gaps and edges. Furthermore, insect communities vary over time. Insight into such habitat specificity and temporal variation is needed to design and...
The structural complexity, especially canopy and gap structure, of old‐growth forests affects the spatial variation of soil respiration (Rs). Without considering this variation, the upscaling of Rs from field measurements to the forest site will be b...
Phenological gaps exert a significant influence on the growth of dwarf bamboos. However, how dwarf bamboos respond to and exploit these phenological gaps remain enigmatic. The light environment, soil nutrients, leaf morphology, maximum photosynthetic...
The presented study demonstrates a bi-sensor approach suitable for rapid and precise up-to-date mapping of forest canopy gaps for the larger spatial extent. The approach makes use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) red, green and blue (RGB) images on s...
Remote sensing technologies like airborne laser scanning (ALS) and digital aerial photogrammetry (DAP) have emerged as efficient tools for detecting and analysing canopy gaps (CGs). Comparing these technologies is essential to determine their functio...
The effect of forest harvesting on the composition and structure of a temperate coniferous forest in Mexico was evaluated after three harvesting periods from 2007–2015. In this forest, we identified seven families and eight tree species. The dominant...
Background: Crown fires are often intense and fast spreading and hence can have serious impacts on soil, vegetation, and wildlife habitats. Fire managers try to prevent the initiation and spread of crown fires in forested landscapes through fuel mana...
Forest leaf area index (LAI) is a key characteristic affecting a field canopy microclimate. In addition to traditional professional measuring instruments, smartphone-based methods have been used to measure forest LAI. However, when smartphone methods...
Studying regeneration processes in oak-dominated forests requires a multi-faceted approach that considers local factors, disturbances, management actions, and tree responses. Our aims were to quantify the carbon and water-use responses of saplings an...
The gap fractions of three mature hemi-boreal forest stands in Estonia were estimated using the LAI-2000 plant canopy analyzer ( LI-COR Biosciences, Lincoln, NE, USA), the TRAC instrument (Edgewall, Miami, FL, USA), Cajanus’ tube, hemispherical...
The Muški bunar old-growth forest on Mount Psunj represents one of the rare preserved mixed ecosystems of sessile oak (Quercus petraea (Matt.) Liebl.) and European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) in Southeastern Europe, providing an important refer...
Forest understory vegetation is largely influenced by disturbances and given local abiotic conditions. Our research focuses on the early response of understory vegetation to various forest management intensities in Dinaric fir-beech forests in Sloven...
Accurate mapping of selective logging (SL) serves as the foundation for additional research on forest restoration and regeneration, species diversification and distribution, and ecosystem dynamics, among other applications. This study aimed to model...
Several decades of research have shown that canopy gaps drive tree renewal processes in the temperate deciduous forest biome. In the literature, canopy gaps are usually defined as canopy openings that are created by partial or total tree death of one...
Forest canopy gaps are key indicators of forest dynamics, yet their vertical organization remains poorly quantified across forest types. While canopy gaps are commonly interpreted as signatures of disturbance regimes, their size distribution and vert...
The formation of a canopy gap results in changes to the microenvironment which, in turn, affect litter decomposition and nutrient release. However, the mechanisms underlying these effects in differently sized gaps and non-gaps remain poorly understoo...
Both vegetation multi-angular and LiDAR (light detection and ranging) remote sensing data are indirectly and directly linked with 3D vegetation structure parameters, such as the tree height and vegetation gap fraction, which are critical elements in...
Gaps are openings within tropical forest canopies created by natural or anthropogenic disturbances. Important aspects of gap dynamics that are not well understood include how gaps close over time and their potential for contagiousness, indicating whe...
Profile radar allows direct characterization of the vertical forest structure. Short-wavelength, such as Ku or X band, microwave data provide opportunities to detect the foliage. In order to exploit the potential of radar technology in forestry appli...
Background and Objectives: The landscape aesthetic service (LAS) is a crucial ecosystem service in subalpine forests of the mountain and ravine regions of the Tibetan Plateau, especially in autumn; it can provide important ecological and economic val...
Canopy gaps are important footprints in understanding the forests’ disturbance regime and regeneration process, yet there is a need to employ multiple metrics along the gradient of time for a deeper understanding of the dynamics. In this study,...
Logging, including selective and illegal activities, is widespread, affecting the carbon cycle and the biodiversity of tropical forests. However, automated approaches using very high resolution (VHR) satellite data (≤1 m spatial resolution) to acc...
Canopy gaps are vital microhabitats for forest carbon cycling and species regeneration, whose accurate extraction is crucial for ecological modeling and smart forestry. However, traditional monitoring methods have notable limitations: ground-based me...
Deciduousness in dry tropical forests results in substantial seasonal changes to canopy gap fractions. The characterization of such structural properties over large areas is necessary for understanding energy and nutrient distribution within forest e...
Forest canopy openings are a key element of forest structure, influencing a host of ecological dynamics. Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) is the de-facto standard for measuring three-dimensional forest structure, but digital aerial photogrammetry...
The study of treefall and its after-effects is a common theme in studies of forest structure and local dynamics, yet its value as descriptor of broader-scale ecological dynamics is rarely explored. Here we synthesize the most highly cited literature...
There is an error in the title of one of our publications [...]
The use of natural regeneration techniques is one of the key elements of modern (close-to-nature) forestry. In natural forests, changes in canopy cover, such as the emergence and successive re-closure of canopy gaps are particularly important, as the...
Changes in the microenvironment driven by forest gaps have profound effects on soil nutrient cycling and litter decomposition processes in alpine forest ecosystems. However, it is unclear whether a similar forest gap effect occurs in the soil decompo...
Canopy closure, which is the ratio of the vertical projection area of the crowns to the area of forest land, can indicate the growth and tending situation of a forest and is of great significance for forest management planning. In this study, a geome...
Understanding forest dynamics is important for assessing the health of urban forests, which experience various disturbances, both natural (e.g., treefall events) and artificial (e.g., making space for agricultural fields). Therefore, quantifying thre...
The interest to assess the relationship between forest gap characteristics and topography features has been growing in the last decades. However, such an approach has not been studied in undisturbed mixed sessile oak–beech old-growth forests. T...
As a type of small-scale disturbance, forest gap and its accurate extraction are of great significance to monitor forest long-term dynamics, to choose forest recovery mode and to predict forest recovery pace. Currently, airborne LiDAR and high-resolu...
The interactive effects of environmental heterogeneity caused by forest gaps and ectomycorrhizae on fungal community characteristics remain insufficiently explored. To address this knowledge gap, we established a three-year field manipulation experim...
Efficient and accurate identification of canopy gaps is the basis of forest ecosystem research, which is of great significance to further forest monitoring and management. Among the existing studies that incorporate remote sensing to map canopy gaps,...
Changes in the microenvironment induced by forest gaps may affect litter decomposition, yet it is unclear how the gap effects respond to altitudinal and seasonal differences. Here, a four-year litterbag decomposition experiment along an elevation gra...
Emerald ash borer (EAB) is an alien invasive species that is spreading across Canada and the United States killing ash trees. In riparian forests where ash may be abundant; loss of ash can induce significant structural changes; including the creation...
of 7