Influence of sampling intensity on performance of two-phase forest inventory using airborne laser scanning

Background: Forest inventories have always been a primary information source concerning the forest ecosystem state. Various applied survey approaches arise from the numerous important factors during sampling scheme planning. Paramount aspects include the survey goal and scale, target population inherent variation and patterns,and available resources. The last factor commonly inhibits the goal, and compromises have to be made. Airborne laser scanning(ALS) has been intensively tested as a cost-effective option for forest inventories. Despite existing foundations, research has provided disparate results. Environmental conditions are one of the factors greatly influencing inventory performance. Therefore, a need for site-related sampling optimization is well founded.Moreover, as stands are the basic operational unit of managed forest holdings, few related studies have presented stand-level results. As such, herein, we tested the sampling intensity influence on the performance of the ALSenhanced stand-level inventory.Results: Distributions of possible errors were plotted by comparing ALS model estimates, with reference values derived from field surveys of 3300 sample plots and more than 300 control stands located in 5 forest districts. No improvement in results was observed due to the scanning density. The variance in obtained errors stabilized in the interval of 200–300 sample plots, maintaining the bias within +/-5% and the precision above 80%. The sample plot area affected scores mostly when transitioning from 100 to 200 m2. Only a slight gain was observed when bigger plots were used.Conclusions: ALS-enhanced inventories effectively address the demand for comprehensive and detailed information on the structure of single stands over vast areas. Knowledge of the relation between the sampling intensity and accuracy of ALS estimates allows the determination of certain sampling intensity thresholds. This should be useful when matching the required sample size and accuracy with available resources. Site optimization may be necessary, as certain errors may occur due to the sampling scheme, estimator type or forest site, making these factors worth further consideration.

Spatial variation of plant species richness in a sand dune field of northeastern Inner Mongolia, China

Species richness is an important indicator of species diversity. Different sampling intensities will very likely produce different species richness values. Substantial efforts have already been made to explicitly quantify the spatial variability of soil properties in different ecosystems. However, concerns still remain on how to characterize the effect of different sampling intensities on plant species richness within a given region. This study characterized the spatial variability of plant species richness and the species distribution pattern in a 25-hm2 sand dune plot in northeastern Inner Mongolia, China by using an intense sampling method（n=10,000）. We also evaluated the overall effect of information loss associated with the spatial variability and distribution patterns of species richness under various scenarios of sampling intensities（n=10,000 to 289）. Our results showed that semi-variograms of species richness were best described by the spherical and exponential models. As indicated by the nugget/sill ratio, species richness was different in terms of the strength of the spatial relationship. The different spatial metrics of species richness with increasing sampling intensities can represent different responses of the spatial patterns when compared with the reference set（n=10,000）. This study indicated that an appropriate sampling intensity should be taken into account in field samplings for evaluating species biodiversity properly. A sampling intensity of n＆gt;2,500 for species richness yielded satisfactory results to resemble the spatial pattern of the above-quantified reference set（n=10,000） in this sand dune region of China.

Wood Moisture Content Measurement by X-Ray Exposure Method

Although quite a numer of papers can be found up to now dealing with the subject of the measurement ofwood density by using the X-ray exposure methods, direet scanning or radiographic photography, the following two aspects,which are very important from both theorctical and engineering application points of view, have not yet been properly handled. One is that the elementary analyses or the experimental measurement on the mass attenuation coefficients were notspecified in regard to spectnun energv distridutions [1]. In this connection, the ambiguities in the specification of the coeffiecients and in turn for thc results among studies arise when only one of the two parameters, namely wave length and applied voltage, of detining the energy spectrum of X-ray is given. The oher is that the relationships between the relative intensity and the sample thickness as well the wood moisture content [2], which are the critical factors for the design and theselection of X-ray apparatus, were not sufficiently examined. In addition, the knowledge of the measurelnent of woodmiosture content by using the direct X-ray scanning method is also almost unavaible now. In the study, the direct X-rayscanning method of measuring wood moisture content was at first investigated theoretically with respect to the relationshipbetween the mass attenuation coefficients of wood (beech, Fagus Sylvatica) and the maximum spectrum energy of X-ray.Secondly, the dependence of the relative intensity on the sample thickness and on the wood moisture content was analysed.The main advantage of the method is on-site nondestructive measuring of wood moisture content in the processes such asdrying, impregnation and unsteady mass diffusion. Specifically for the application in the area of biomechanics, the methodcan also bc used for understanding the water pathway within wood, for example, the water around the knots and the relation between the stress distribution and the local moisture content of wood.

Influence of sampling frequency on detectability of fish community and fish species in a fishery-independent survey

Understanding the dynamics and regulation of a particular ecological process requires monitoring of the process at appropriate spatial and temporal scales.Information collected at an inappropriate spatiotemporal scale may be insufficient for capturing spatio-temporal dynamics of fish populations and community.In this study,a Monte Carlo method was developed to evaluate the detectability performances of different sampling frequencies,sampling timings and sampling intensities on fish community indices and fish species.Species richness indices tended to decrease with an increased sampling frequency,while species diversity indices had small changes in response to changes in sampling frequency.The diversity index was more likely to be influenced by the choice of sampling timing compared to the richness index.The total number of species,especially seasonal and rare species present in the simulated sampling,increased with sampling frequency.Although sampling frequency is more important than sampling intensity,sampling intensity is also important for the detectability of fish species.This study showed that sampling frequency and intensity could greatly influence the estimation of fish community.Choices of sampling timing,sampling frequency and intensity may result in different estimates of fish species compositions and community structure.It is very necessary to consider the importance of sufficient sampling frequency and intensity in a survey program.