Diameter, height and species of 42 million trees in three European landscapes generated from field data and airborne laser scanning data.

Ecology and forestry sciences are using an increasing amount of data to address a wide variety of technical and research questions at the local, continental and global scales. However, one type of data remains rare: fine-grain descriptions of large landscapes. Yet, this type of data could help address the scaling issues in ecology and could prove useful for testing forest management strategies and accurately predicting the dynamics of ecosystem services.

Regional height growth models for Scots pine in Poland.

Site productivity remains a fundamental concern in forestry as a significant driver of resource availability for tree growth. The site index (SI) reflects the overall impact of all environmental factors that determine tree height growth and is the most commonly used indirect proxy for forest site productivity estimated using stand age and height. The SI concept challenges are local variations in climate, soil, and genotype-environmental interactions that lead to variable height growth patterns among ecoregions and cause inappropriate estimation of site productivity.

Tree height as the main factor causing disappearance of the terricolous lichens in the lichen Scots pine forests.

The lichen Scots pine forests habitats are undergoing rapid disappearance across Europe. Due to the semi-natural character of this habitat and an increase of the nitrification as a result of air pollution, determination of factors responsible for the decrease in lichen field layer cover requires a comprehensive approach. Our study aimed to investigate environmental factors necessary for the determination of active protection measures in order to maintain this vulnerable habitat.