Leaf angle as a leaf and canopy trait: Rejuvenating its role in ecology with new technology.

Life on Earth depends on the conversion of solar energy to chemical energy by plants through photosynthesis. A fundamental challenge in optimizing photosynthesis is to adjust leaf angles to efficiently use the intercepted sunlight under the constraints of heat stress, water loss and competition. Despite the importance of leaf angle, until recently, we have lacked data and frameworks to describe and predict leaf angle dynamics and their impacts on leaves to the globe.

TLSLeAF: automatic leaf angle estimates from single-scan terrestrial laser scanning.

Leaf angle distribution (LAD) in forest canopies affects estimates of leaf area, light interception, and global-scale photosynthesis, but is often simplified to a single theoretical value. Here, we present TLSLeAF (Terrestrial Laser Scanning Leaf Angle Function), an automated open-source method of deriving LADs from terrestrial laser scanning. TLSLeAF produces canopy-scale leaf angle and LADs by relying on gridded laser scanning data.

Evaluating the success of treatments that slow spread of an invasive insect pest.

Background: Treatments for the suppression and eradication of insect populations undergo substantial testing to ascertain their efficacy and safety, but the generally limited spatial and temporal scope of such studies limit knowledge of how contextual factors encountered in operational contexts shape the relative success of pest management treatments. These contextual factors potentially include ecological characteristics of the treated area, or the timing of treatments relative to pest phenology and weather events. We used an extensive database on over 1000 treatments of nascent populations of Lymantria dispar (L.

Trees outside forests are an underestimated resource in a country with low forest cover.

Trees outside forests (TOF) are an underrepresented resource in forest poor nations. As a result of their frequent omission from national forest resource assessments and a lack of readily available very-high-resolution remotely sensed imagery, TOF status and characterization has until now, been unknown. Here, we assess the capacity of openly available 10 m ESA Sentinel constellation satellite imagery for mapping TOF extent at the national level in Bangladesh.

Tree height and leaf drought tolerance traits shape growth responses across droughts in a temperate broadleaf forest.

As climate change drives increased drought in many forested regions, mechanistic understanding of the factors conferring drought tolerance in trees is increasingly important. The dendrochronological record provides a window through which we can understand how tree size and traits shape growth responses to droughts. We analyzed tree-ring records for 12 species in a broadleaf deciduous forest in Virginia (USA) to test hypotheses for how tree height, microenvironment characteristics, and species' traits shaped drought responses across the three strongest regional droughts over a 60-yr period.

Variability and uncertainty in forest biomass estimates from the tree to landscape scale: the role of allometric equations.

Background: Biomass maps are valuable tools for estimating forest carbon and forest planning. Individual-tree biomass estimates made using allometric equations are the foundation for these maps, yet the potentially-high uncertainty and bias associated with individual-tree estimates is commonly ignored in biomass map error. We developed allometric equations for lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta), ponderosa pine (P.

Tree height explains mortality risk during an intense drought.

Forest mortality is accelerating due to climate change and the largest trees may be at the greatest risk, threatening critical ecological, economic, and social benefits. Here, we combine high-resolution airborne LiDAR and optical data to track tree-level mortality rates for ~2 million trees in California over 8 years, showing that tree height is the strongest predictor of mortality during extreme drought. Large trees die at twice the rate of small trees and environmental gradients of temperature, water, and competition control the intensity of the height-mortality relationship.

Terrestrial LiDAR-derived non-destructive woody biomass estimates for 10 hardwood species in Virginia.

This article contains data related to the research article entitled "Assessing terrestrial laser scanning for developing non-destructive biomass allometry" (Stovall et al., 2018 [1]) and presents 258 terrestrial LiDAR-derived estimates of tree volume and biomass. The terrestrial LiDAR acquisitions were completed in the Center for Tropical Forest Science - Forest Global Earth Observatory (CTFS-ForestGEO) plot in Front Royal, Virginia, USA.

FluoSpec 2-An Automated Field Spectroscopy System to Monitor Canopy Solar-Induced Fluorescence.

Accurate estimation of terrestrial photosynthesis has broad scientific and societal impacts. Measurements of photosynthesis can be used to assess plant health, quantify crop yield, and determine the largest CO₂ flux in the carbon cycle. Long-term and continuous monitoring of vegetation optical properties can provide valuable information about plant physiology.