Direct measurement of the three-dimensional distribution of leaf area density and light conditions in a mature oak stand by the cube method

Although the distributions of foliage and light play major roles in various forest functions,accurate,nondestructive measurement of these distributions is difficult due to the complexity of the canopy structure.To evaluate the foliage and light distributions directly and nondestructively in a mature oak stand,we used the cube method by dividing the forest canopy into small cubes(50 cm per side)and directly measured leaf area density(LAD,the total one-sided leaf area per unit volume,i.e.,cube)and relative irradiance(RI)within each cube.The distribution of LAD and of RI was highly heterogeneous,even at the same canopy height.This heterogeneity reflected the presence of foliage clusters associated with multiple forking branches.The relationship between cumulative LAD at the canopy surface and average RI followed the Beer-Lambert law.The mean light extinction coefficient(K)was 0.32.However,K was overestimated by more than double(0.80)when calculated based on the classical method using RI at the forest floor.This overestimation was caused by the lower RI due to light absorption by nonleaf plant parts below the canopy.Our findings on the complex foliage and light distributions in canopy layers should help improve the accuracy of RI and K measurements and thus more accurate predictions of environmental responses and forest functions.

Effect of layer thickness and voxel size inversion on leaf area density based on the voxel-based canopy profiling method

Voxel-based canopy profiling is commonly used to determine small-scale leaf area.Layer thickness and voxel size impact accuracy when using this method.Here,we determined the optimal combination of layer thickness and voxel size to estimate leaf area density accurately.Terrestrial LiDAR Stonex X300 was used to generate point cloud data for Masson pines(Pinus massoniana).The canopy layer was stratified into 0.10-1.00-m-thick layers,while voxel size was 0.01-0.10 m.The leaf area density of individual trees was estimated using leaf area indices for the upper,middle,and lower canopy and the overall canopy.The true leaf area index,obtained by layered harvesting,was used to verify the inversion results.Leaf area density was inverted by nine combinations of layer thickness and voxel size.The average relative accuracy and mean estimated accuracy of these combined inversion results exceeded 80%.When layer thickness was 1.00 m and voxel size 0.05 m,inversion was closest to the true value.The average relative accuracy was 92.58%,mean estimated accuracy 98.00%,and root mean square error 0.17.The combination of leaf area density and index was accurately retrieved.In conclusion,nondestructive voxel-based canopy profiling proved suitable for inverting the leaf area density of Masson pine in Hetian Town,Fujian Province.

Visual rating and the use of image analysis for assessing canopy density in a pecan provenance collection during leaf fall

A collection representing the native range of pecan was planted at the US DA-ARS Southeastern Fruit and Tree Nut Research Station,Byron,GA.The collection(867 trees)is a valuable genetic resource for characterizing important horticultural traits.Canopy density during leaf fall is important as the seasonal canopy dynamics provides insights to environmental cues and breeding potential of germplasm.The ability of visual raters to estimate canopy density on a subset of the provenance collection(76 trees)as an indicator of leaf shed during autumn along with image analysis values was explored.Mean canopy density using the image analysis software was less compared to visual estimates(11.9%vs 18.4%,respectively).At higher canopy densities,the raters overestimated foliage density,but overall agreement between raters and measured values was good(ρc=0.849 to 0.915),and inter-rater reliability was high(R^(2)=0.910 to 0.953).The provenance from Missouri(MOL),the northernmost provenance,had the lowest canopy density in November,and results show that the higher the latitude of the provenance,the lower the canopy density.Based on regression,the source provenance latitude explained 0.609 of the variation using image analysis,and0.551 to 0.640 when based on the rater estimates of canopy density.Visual assessment of pecan canopy density due to late season leaf fall for comparing pecan genotypes provides accurate and reliable estimates and could be used in future studies of the whole provenance collection.

Road Centrality and Landscape Spatial Patterns in Wuhan Metropolitan Area,China

Road network is a corridor system that interacts with surrounding landscapes,and understanding their interaction helps to develop an optimal plan for sustainable transportation and land use.This study investigates the relationships between road centrality and landscape patterns in the Wuhan Metropolitan Area,China.The densities of centrality measures,including closeness,betweenness,and straightness,are calculated by kernel density estimation(KDE).The landscape patterns are characterized by four landscape metrics,including percentage of landscape(PLAND),Shannon′s diversity index(SHDI),mean patch size(MPS),and mean shape index(MSI).Spearman rank correlation analysis is then used to quantify their relationships at both landscape and class levels.The results show that the centrality measures can reflect the hierarchy of road network as they associate with road grade.Further analysis exhibit that as centrality densities increase,the whole landscape becomes more fragmented and regular.At the class level,the forest gradually decreases and becomes fragmented,while the construction land increases and turns to more compact.Therefore,these findings indicate that the ability and potential applications of centrality densities estimated by KDE in quantifying the relationships between roads and landscapes,can provide detailed information and valuable guidance for transportation and land-use planning as well as a new insight into ecological effects of roads.

Microvessel changes in the gerbil hippocampus after cerebral ischemia and reperfusion by Buyang Huanwu decoction pretreatment

Buyang Huanwu decoction （BYHWD） is a classic recipe for the prevention and treatment of ischemic cerebrovascular disease. Gerbils were pretreated with BYHWD, and then subjected to cerebral ischemia and reperfusion. Microvascular changes were determined with laser Doppler monitoring, tannic acid-ferric chloride mordant, and electron microscopy. Results showed that BYHWD pretreatment could enhance the function of hippocampal microvessels, prevent injury, and increase microvasular density and microvasular area density. Thus, these results suggest that BYHWD pretreatment could prevent microvascular occlusion, enhance the capacity of microvascular reperfusion, increase cerebral blood flow, and inhibit neuronal damage, and may be an effective therapy against brain ischemic injury.

Soil nutrients in relation to vertical roots distribution in the riparian zone of Three Gorges Reservoir,China

Since the impoundment of the Three Gorges Reservoir(TGR), the riparian zone has been subjected to numerous environmental changes. This study was conducted to recognize the distribution of grass roots and its impacts on soil nutrients in the water level fluctuation zone of TGR. Roots of four predominant herbaceous plants in the study area, specifically, Cynodon dactylon, Hemarthria altissima, Hemarthria compressa, and Paspalum paspaloides, and their corresponding relation with soil nutrient contents were investigated. Root surface area density was determined with Win RHIZO, and the relationships of root distribution with soil depths and soil nutrient contents were studied. The results indicates that most roots are distributed in the top soil layer of 0-10 cm. Estimated root surface area density for the selected grass species ranges from 0.16 to 13.44 cm^2/cm^3, and decreases exponentially with an increase in soil depth. Soil organic matter and total nitrogen contents are significantly lower on bare control area than the corresponding values on the grasslands. Total nutrient contents on grasslands of C. dactylon and H. compressa are higher than those of other grass areas. Root length density and root surface area density are significantly correlated with soil organic matter and total nitrogen content for the four grasslands. The present results suggests that plant roots have significant effects on the distribution of soil nutrients in soil profiles in the riparian zone along the TGR. Nevertheless, additional investigations are needed to reveal the specific interactions between plant roots distribution, soil nutrients and water level fluctuations.

An Intelligent Early Warning Method of Press-Assembly Quality Based on Outlier Data Detection and Linear Regression

Focusing on controlling the press-assembly quality of high-precision servo mechanism,an intelligent early warning method based on outlier data detection and linear regression is proposed.Linear regression is used to deal with the relationship between assembly quality and press-assembly process,then the mathematical model of displacement-force in press-assembly process is established and a qualified press-assembly force range is defined for assembly quality control.To preprocess the raw dataset of displacement-force in the press-assembly process,an improved local outlier factor based on area density and P weight(LAOPW)is designed to eliminate the outliers which will result in inaccuracy of the mathematical model.A weighted distance based on information entropy is used to measure distance,and the reachable distance is replaced with P weight.Experiments show that the detection efficiency of the algorithm is improved by 5.6 ms compared with the traditional local outlier factor(LOF)algorithm,and the detection accuracy is improved by about 2%compared with the local outlier factor based on area density(LAOF)algorithm.The application of LAOPW algorithm and the linear regression model shows that it can effectively carry out intelligent early warning of press-assembly quality of high precision servo mechanism.

Prediction of the position of coal particles in an air dense medium fluidized bed system

An air dense medium fluidized bed separator(ADMFBS) is used for dry beneficiation of coal using ultrafine magnetite particles as a pseudo-fluid medium. In this process, the coal particle gains additional weight due to coating on its surface and deposition at dead zone area by fine magnetite particles.Hence, the effective density of coal particle increases and the position of coal particle changes accordingly. In this work, an attempt was made to predict the position of coal particle in non-bubbling condition dense medium fluidized bed system. Coal particles of different shape such as cubical, rectangular prism,spherical and triangular prism with different projected area and density were used. The results show that the position of coal particle in air dense medium fluidized bed follows descending order with respect to the increase of density, projected area of coal particle and different shapes(i.e., triangular prism, cubical,rectangular prism and spherical). Empirical mathematical correlations were developed to predict the position of coal particle.

Spatio-temporal Pattern and Spatial Heterogeneity of Ecotones Based on Land Use Types of Southeastern Da Hinggan Mountains in China

Ecotones have received great attention due to its critical function in energy flux, species harbor, global carbon sequestration, and land-atmosphere interaction. This study investigated land use pattern and spatial heterogeneity of the ecotones among agricultural land, forest land, and grassland of the southeastern Da Hinggan Mountains in the northeastern China. The change of these delineated ecotones under different slopes and aridity conditions was analyzed by two landscape indices, edge density(ED) and core area percentage of landscape(CPL), to explore the inter-linkage between spatial structure of ecotones and socioeconomic development and land management. Specifically, the ecotones such as agriculture-forest(AF) ecotone, forest-grassland(FG) ecotone, and agriculture-forestgrassland(AFG) ecotone moved from the arid southeast to the humid northwest. The flat area with small slope is more edge-fragmented than the steep area since the ED decreases as the slope increases. The AF ecotone mostly found in the humid region is moving to more humid areas while the agriculture-grassland(AG) ecotone mostly found in the dry region is moving towards the drier region.

Discussion on Common Problems in Risk Assessment of Lightning Disaster

The problems in calculating parameters of equivalent collection area,earth resistivity and lightning protection category as well as their effects on lightning disaster risk assessment were analyzed,and practical examples proved the effects of those differences on lightning protection identification,intercept efficiency calculation in evaluating lightning disaster risk. In the meantime,several new concepts,such as the height of buildings for lightning protection were defined,and a fixed radius value was set to the ground flash density for calculation,establishing the ground flash density formula to solve the problems in parameter calculation,which would be beneficial to promote the standardization of lightning disaster risk assessment.

On differences between deterministic and statistical models of the interphase region

This paper reviews differences between the deterministic(sharp and diffuse)and statistical models of the interphase region between the two-phases.In the literature this region is usually referred to as the(macroscopic)interface.Therein,the mesoscopic interface that is defined at the molecular level and agitated by the thermal fluctuations is found with nonzero probability.For this reason,in this work,the interphase region is called the mesoscopic intermittency/transition region.To this purpose,the first part of the present work gives the rationale for introduction of the mesoscopic intermittency region statistical model.It is argued that classical(deterministic)sharp and diffuse models do not explain the experimental and numerical results presented in the literature.Afterwards,it is elucidated that a statistical model of the mesoscopic intermittency region(SMIR)combines existing sharp and diffuse models into a single coherent framework and explains published experimental and numerical results.In the second part of the present paper,the SMIR is used for the first time to predict equilibrium and nonequilibrium two-phase flow in the numerical simulation.To this goal,a two-dimensional rising gas bubble is studied;obtained numerical results are used as a basis to discuss differences between the deterministic and statistical models showing the statistical description has a potential to account for the physical phenomena not previously considered in the computer simulations.