Fractal analysis of canopy architectures of Acacia angustissima, Gliricidia sepium, and Leucaena collinsii for estimation of aboveground biomass in a short rotation forest in eastern Zambia

A study was conducted at Msekera Regional Agricultural Research Station in eastern Zambia to （1） describe canopy branching properties of Acacia angustissima, Gliricidia sepium and Leucaena collinsii in short rotation forests, （2） test the existence of self similarity from repeated iteration of a structural unit in tree canopies, （3） examined intra-specifie relationships between functional branching characteristics, and （4） determine whether allometric equations for relating aboveground tree biomass to fractal properties could accurately predict aboveground biomass. Measurements of basal diameter （Din0） at 10em aboveground and total height （H）, and aboveground biomass of 27 trees were taken, but only nine trees representative of variability of the stand and the three species were processed for functional branching analyses （FBA） of the shoot systems. For each species, fractal properties of three trees, includ- ing fractal dimension （Dfract）, bifurcation ratios （p） and proportionality ratios （q） of branching points were assessed. The slope of the linear re- gression ofp on proximal diameter was not significantly different （P 〈 0.01） from zero and hence the assumption that p is independent of scale, a pre-requisite for use of fraetal branching rules to describe a fraetal tree canopy, was fulfilled at branching orders with link diameters 〉1.5 cm. The proportionality ration q for branching patterns of all tree species was constant at all scales. The proportion of q values 〉0.9 （fq） was 0.8 for all species. Mean fraetal dimension （Df^ct） values （1.5-1.7） for all species showed that branching patterns had an increasing magnitude of intricacy. Since Dfraet values were 〉1.5, branching patterns within species were self similar. Basal diameter （D10）, proximal diameter and Dfraet described most of variations in aboveground biomass, suggesting that allometric equa- tions for relating aboveground tree biomass to fractal properties could accurately predict aboveground biomass. Thus, assessed Acacia, Gliri- cidia and Leucaena trees were fractals and their branching propertiescould be used to describe variability in size and aboveground biomass.

Scale characters analysis for gully structure in the watersheds of loess landforms based on digital elevation models

Scale is the basic attribute for expressing anddescribing spatial entity and phenomena. It offerstheoretical significance in the study of gully structureinformation, variable characteristics of watershed mor-phology, and development evolution at different scales.This research selected five different areas in China＇s LoessPlateau as the experimental region and used DEM data atdifferent scales as the experimental data. First, the changerule of the characteristic parameters of the data at differentscales was analyzed. The watershed structure informationdid not change along with a change in the data scale. Thiscondition was proven by selecting indices of gullybifurcation ratio and fractal dimension as characteristicparameters of watershed structure information. Then, thechange rule of the characteristic parameters of gullystructure with different analysis scales was analyzed bysetting the scale sequence of analysis at the extractiongully. The gully structure of the watershed changed withvariations in the analysis scale, and the change rule wasobvious when the gully level changed. Finally, the changerule of the characteristic parameters of the gully structure atdifferent areas was analyzed. The gully fractal dimensionshowed a significant numerical difference in differentareas, whereas the variation of the gully branch ratio wassmall. The change rule indicated that the developmentdegree of the gully obviously varied in different regions,but the morphological structure was basically similar.