Tropical island countries are often highly populated and deliver immense ecosystem service benefits. As human wellbeing depends on these ecosystems proper management is crucial in the resource-rich tropical lands where related research is less. Though the ecosystem service and biodiversity studies are a promising path to inform the ecosystem management for these mostly developing countries published evidence of using ecosystem service studies in decision-making is lacking. The purpose of this study is to provide an overview of ecosystem services and related research in Sri Lanka examining trends and gaps and how these studies are conceptualized. Out of considered 139 peer-reviewed articles majority of articles 42.4% were terrestrial and forest related while coastal ecosystems were considered in 34.5% of studies. In most studies, the ecosystem service category was provisioning (33.8%) followed by regulatory service (30.9%). Studies investigating and quantifying ecosystem services, pressures on ecosystems, and their management were fewer compared to studies related to biodiversity or species introduction. Moreover, studies investigating the value of ecosystem services and biodiversity to the communities or involvement of stakeholders in the development of management actions regarding the ecosystem services were rare in Sri Lanka and intense focus of future studies in these aspects are timely and necessary.

The paper presents an assessment of the growth dynamics of the modal fir plantations in the Lower Angara region. At present, a vast area of fir forests in the Lower Angara region is characterised by a significant decrease in sustainability due to periodic forest fires, insect pests outbreaks and diseases, which lead to their natural degradation and death. However, the intensity of coniferous stand growth in certain forest site characteristics persists in the long term. Therefore, creating regression models of forest growth and development involving the identification of site conditions is very important both from a practical point of view and for environmental monitoring. The materials of the mass inventory of 3491 stands served as the initial data for studying the processes of fir plantations natural growth. The Hoerl Model function is suitable for the best approximation of stand growth since it is characterised by high levelling factor (from 0.970 to 0.987) and a small standard error (not exceeding 7%). As a result of the research, there have been constructed sketches of the growth rate tables for the modal Siberian fir stands of the third bonitet class of the forb and mossy groups of forest types.

Monitoring drought impacts in forest ecosystems is a complex process, because forest ecosystems are composed of different species with heterogeneous structural compositions. Even though forest drought status is a key control on the carbon cycle, very few indices exist to monitor and predict forest drought stress. The Forest Drought Indicator (ForDRI) is a new monitoring tool developed by the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC) to identify forest drought stress. ForDRI integrates 12 types of data, including satellite, climate, evaporative demand, ground water, and soil moisture, into a single hybrid index to estimate tree stress. The model uses Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to determine the contribution of each input variable based on its covariance in the historical records (2003–2017). A 15-year time series of 780 ForDRI maps at a weekly interval were produced. The ForDRI values at a 12.5km spatial resolution were compared with normalized weekly Bowen ratio data, a biophysically based indicator of stress, from nine AmeriFlux sites. There were strong and significant correlations between Bowen ratio data and ForDRI at sites that had experienced intense drought. In addition, tree ring annual increment data at eight sites in four eastern U.S. national parks were compared with ForDRI values at the corresponding sites. The correlation between ForDRI and tree ring increments at the selected eight sites during the summer season ranged between 0.46 and 0.75. Generally, the correlation between the ForDRI and normalized Bowen ratio or tree ring increment are reasonably good and indicate the usefulness of the ForDRI model for estimating drought stress and providing decision support on forest drought management.

Phenology is one of the ubiquitous fingerprints of climate change on our ecosystems. Monitoring the spatiotemporal patterns of vegetation phenology is thus critical. A wide range of sensors have been used to monitor vegetation phenology. Sensor point of view and resolution can potentially impact estimates of phenology. We compared three different sensors from three different remote sensing platforms—a UAV mounted RGB camera, an under canopy, upward facing hemispherical camera with R, G and NIR capabilities, and a tower mounted RGB PhenoCam—to estimate spring phenological transition in a mixed-species temperate forest in central Virginia, USA. Our study had two objectives: 1) to compare the above- and below- canopy inference of canopy greenness (green chromatic coordinate and normalized difference vegetation index) and canopy structural attributes (leaf area and gap fraction) by matching under-canopy hemispherical photos with high spatial resolution (0.03 m) drone imagery to find the appropriate spatial coverage and resolution for comparison; 2) to compare how each sensor performed in estimating the temporality of the spring phenological transition. We find that a spatial buffer of 20 m radius for UAV imagery is most closely comparable to under-canopy imagery in this system. Sensors and platforms agree within +/- 5 days of when canopy greenness stabilizes from the spring phenophase into the growing season. This work has implications for paring UAV imagery with both tower-based observation platforms, as well as plot-based studies (e.g. long-term monitoring, existing research networks, permanent plots).

Soil hydraulic properties are often derived indirectly, i.e. computed from easily available soil properties with pedotransfer functions (PTFs), when those are needed for catchment, regional or continental scale applications. When predicted soil hydraulic parameters are used for the modelling of the state and flux of water in soils, uncertainty of the computed values can provide more detailed information when drawing conclusions. The aim of this study was to update the previously published European PTFs (Tóth et al., 2015, euptf v1.4.0) by providing prediction uncertainty calculation built into the transfer functions. The new set of algorithms was derived for point predictions of soil water content at saturation (0 cm matric potential head), field capacity (both -100 and -330 cm matric potential head), wilting point (-15.000 cm matric potential head), plant available water, and saturated hydraulic conductivity, as well as the Mualem-van Genuchten model parameters of the moisture retention and hydraulic conductivity curve. The minimum set of input properties for the prediction is soil depth and sand, silt and clay content. The effect of including additional information like soil organic carbon content, bulk density, calcium carbonate content, pH and cation exchange capacity were extensively analysed. The PTFs were derived adopting the random forest method. The advantage of the new PTFs is that they i) provide information about prediction uncertainty, ii) are significantly more accurate than the euptfv1, iii) can be applied for more predictor variable combinations than the euptfv1, 32 instead of 5, and iv) are now also derived for the prediction of water content at -100 cm matric potential head and plant available water content.

Wildfire susceptibility maps display the wildfires occurrence probability, ranked from low to high, under a given environmental context. Current studies in this field often rely on expert knowledge, including or not statistical models allowing to assess the cause-effect correlation. Machine learning (ML) algorithms can perform very well and be more generalizable thanks to their capability of learning from and make predictions on data. Italy is highly affected by wildfires due to the high heterogeneity of the territory and to the predisposing meteorological conditions. The main objective of the present study is to elaborate a wildfire susceptibility map for Liguria region (Italy) by applying Random Forest, an ensemble ML algorithm based on decision trees. Susceptibility was assessed by evaluating the probability for an area to burn in the future considering where wildfires occurred in the past and which are the geo-environmental factors that favor their spread. Different models were compared, including or not the neighboring vegetation and using an increasing number of folds for the spatial-cross validation. Susceptibility maps for the two fire seasons were finally elaborated and validated and results critically discussed highlighting the capacity of the proposed approach to identify the efficiency of fire fighting activities.

Diesel engines, as power equipment, are widely used in the fields of automobile industry, ship and power equipment. Due to wear or faulty adjustment, the valve train clearance abnormal fault is a typical failure of diesel engines, which may result in the performance degradation, even valve fracture and cylinder hit fault. However, the failure mechanism features mainly in time domain and angular domain, on which the current diagnosis methods based, are easily affected by working conditions or hard to extract accurate enough, as the diesel engine keeps running in transient and non-stationary process. This work arms at diagnosing this fault mainly based on frequency band features which would change when the valve clearance fault occurs. For the purpose of extracting a series of frequency band features adaptively，a decomposition technique based on improved variational mode decomposition is investigated in this work. As the connection between the features and the fault is fuzzy, the random forest algorithm is used to analyze the correspondence between features and faults. In addition, the feature dimension is reduced to improve the operation efficiency according to importance score. The experimental results under variable speed condition show that the method based on variational mode decomposition and random forest is capable to detect valve clearance fault effectively.

Mapping forest composition using multiseasonal optical time series is still challenging. Highly contrasted results are reported from one study to another suggesting that drivers of classification errors are still under-explored. We evaluated the performances of single-year Formosat-2 time series to discriminate tree species in temperate forests in France and investigated how predictions vary statistically and spatially across multiple years. Our objective was to better estimate the impact of spatial autocorrelation in the validation data on measurement accuracy and to understand which drivers in the time series are responsible for classification errors. The experiments were based on ten Formosat-2 image time series irregularly acquired during the seasonal vegetation cycle from 2006 to 2014. Due to lot of clouds in the year 2006, an alternative 2006 time series using only cloud-free images has been added. Thirteen tree species were classified in each single-year dataset based on the SVM algorithm. The performances were assessed using a spatial leave-one-out cross validation (SLOO-CV) strategy, thereby guaranteeing full independence of the validation samples, and compared with standard non-spatial leave-one-out cross-validation (LOO-CV). The results show relatively close statistical performances from one year to the next despite the differences between the annual time series. Good agreements between years were observed in monospecific tree plantations of broadleaf species versus high disparity in other forests composed of different species. A strong positive bias in the accuracy assessment (up to 0.4 of Overall Accuracy) was also found when spatial dependence in the validation data was not removed. Using the SLOO-CV approach, the average OA values per year ranged from 0.48 for 2006 to 0.60 for 2013, which satisfactorily represents the spatial instability of species prediction between years.

The ASCE-EWRI reference evapotranspiration (ETo) equation is recommended as a standardized method for reference crop ETo estimation. However, various climate data as input variables to the standardized ETo method are considered limiting factors in most cases and restrict the ETo estimation. This paper assessed the potential of different machine learning (ML) models for ETo estimation using limited meteorological data. The ML models used to estimate daily ETo included Gene Expression Programming (GEP), Support Vector Machine (SVM), Multiple Linear Regression (LR), and Random Forest (RF). Three input combinations of daily maximum and minimum temperature (Tmax and Tmin), wind speed (W) with Tmax and Tmin, and solar radiation (Rs) with Tmax and Tmin were considered using meteorological data during 2003–2016 from six weather stations in the Red River Valley. To understand the performance of the applied models with the various combinations, station, and yearly based tests were assessed with local and spatial approaches. Considering the local and spatial approaches analysis, the LR and RF models illustrated the lowest rate of improvement compared to GEP and SVM. The spatial RF and SVM approaches showed the lowest and highest values of the scatter index as 0.333 and 0.457, respectively. As a result, the radiation-based combination and the RF model showed the best performance with higher accuracy for all stations either locally or spatially, and the spatial SVM and GEP illustrated the lowest performance among models and approaches.

Secondary forests (SF) are important carbon sinks, removing CO₂ from the atmosphere through the photosynthesis process and storing photosynthates in their aboveground live biomass (AGB). This process occurring at large-scales partially counteracts C emissions from land-use change, playing, hence, an important role in the global carbon cycle. The absorption rates of carbon in these forests depend on forest physiology, controlled by environmental and climatic conditions as well as on the past land use, which is rarely considered for retrieving AGB from remotely sensed data. In this context, the main goal of this study is to evaluate the potential of full polarimetric ALOS-2 PALSAR-2 data for estimating AGB by taking into account the past-land use of SF areas in the Brazilian Amazon. We surveyed a chronosequence of 42 SF plots (20 ha) near the Tapajós National Forest in Pará state to quantifying AGB growth rates. We explored the full polarimetric data testing three regression models including non-linear (NL), multiple linear regressions models (MLR), and the semi-empirical extended water cloud model (EWCM). The results showed that the intensity of previous use has affected the structure of SF by reducing the AGB accumulation and being noticeable by several polarimetric attributes. The combination of multiple prediction variables with MLR improved the AGB estimation by 70% comparing amongst other models (R² adj. = 0.51; RMSE = 13.2 Mg ha^-1) bias = 2.1 ± 37.9 Mg ha^-1. The error propagation of the MLR model was estimated to be 15%.

In the lowland forests of south-western Poland, the effect of the fencing of forest regeneration stages, aged up to 20 years, upon the level of damage inflicted by red deer (Cervus elaphus), fallow deer (Dama dama), and roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) in non-fenced patches of this age class of forest was studied. In the studied forest districts (n=4), there was the highest proportion of the mixed coniferous‑deciduous forest types, where the main forest‑forming tree species were pine (Pinus sylvertris), birch (Betula sp.), oak (Quercus sp.), beech (Fagus sylvatica), and spruce (Picea abies). At the forest district level, the percentage of fenced areas in young forest plantations (1‑10‑year old) ranged, on average, from 9.1-30.9%, and that in tickets (11-20‑year old) ranged from 0.0%-10.2%. The percentage of areas of severely damaged young plantations fluctuated between 5.7 and 14.2%, and that of tickets fluctuated between 0.3-12.9%. For young plantations, a statistically significant correlation (“r” ranged from 0.51-0.75) was obtained between percentage of area in fenced plots and the level of damage caused by deer. For thickets, this correlation was obtained solely in Pieńsk Forest District (r = 0.646). In the studied forest districts, the fencing of young plantations and thickets resulted in the reduction of average potential food base for cervids, from 2.9 to 10.0 %. An attempt was made to interpret the level of deer damage on the basis of an index, taking into account the standing crop of deciduous browse and forbs, and the population density of cervids.

Forest canopy structure (CS) controls many ecosystem functions and is highly variable across landscapes, but the magnitude and scale of this variation is not well understood. We used a portable canopy lidar system to characterize variation in five categories of CS along N = 3 transects (140–800 m long) at each of six forested landscapes within the eastern USA. The cumulative coefficient of variation was calculated for subsegments of each transect to determine the point of stability for individual CS metrics. We then quantified the scale at which CS is autocorrelated using Moran’s I in an Incremental Autocorrelation analysis. All CS metrics reached stable values within 300 m but varied substantially within and among forested landscapes. A stable point of 300 m for CS metrics corresponds with the spatial extent that many ecosystem functions are measured and modeled. Additionally, CS metrics were spatially autocorrelated at 40 to 88 m, suggesting that patch scale disturbance or environmental factors drive these patterns. Our study shows CS is heterogeneous across temperate forest landscapes at the scale of 10’s of meters, requiring a resolution of this size for upscaling CS with remote sensing to large spatial scales.

Secondary transportation of raw and comminuted forest products is a major component in forest harvesting operations in terms of economics, public perception, and safety. Consequently, there is a substantial amount of literature on this topic. The existing literature has dealt with many of the technical aspects of transportation with a majority of them focusing on improving supply chain issues; However, there are only few specific to secondary transportation issues in general. This annotated bibliography will help practitioners, researchers, and stakeholders gain a better understanding of the existing literature from 2000 to 2015. To this end, we began by classifying the selected literature into six themes: cost, roads and routes, trucking, efficiency & safety, other modes of transportation, and supply chain & optimization. Woody biomass for bioenergy production was the most researched forest product with respect to transportation. About one-third of the articles were presented in the context of supply chain modeling and optimization. More than half of the studies originated from Europe while the United States had the most publications for any given country. The most articles (16) were published in 2013. Biomass and Bioenergy published the highest number of articles (29) during the timeframe.

Today, non-expensive remote sensing (RS) data from different sensors and platforms can be obtained at short intervals and be used for assessing several kinds of forest characteristics at the level of plots, stands and landscapes. Methods such as composite estimation and data assimilation can be used for combining the different sources of information to obtain up-to-date and precise estimates of the characteristics of interest. In composite estimation a standard procedure is to assign weights to the different individual estimates inversely proportional to their variance. However, in case the estimates are correlated, the correlations must be considered in assigning weights or otherwise a composite estimator may be inefficient and its variance be underestimated. In this study we assessed the correlation of plot level estimates of forest characteristics from different RS datasets, between assessments using the same type of sensor as well as across different sensors. The RS data evaluated were SPOT-5 multispectral data, 3D airborne laser scanning data, and TanDEM-X interferometric radar data. Studies were made for plot level mean diameter, mean height, and growing stock volume. All data were acquired from a test site dominated by coniferous forest in southern Sweden. We found that the correlation between plot level estimates based on the same type of RS data were positive and strong, whereas the correlations between estimates using different sources of RS data were not as strong, and weaker for mean height than for mean diameter and volume. The implications of such correlations in composite estimation are demonstrated and it is discussed how correlations may affect results from data assimilation procedures.

Global change is affecting vegetation cover and processes through multiple pathways. Long time series of surface land surface properties derived from satellite remote sensing offer a unique abilities to observe these changes, particularly in areas with complex topography and limited research infrastructure. Here, we focus on Nepal, a biodiversity hotspot where vegetation productivity is limited by moisture availability (dominated by a summer monsoon) at lower elevations and by temperature at high elevations. We analyze normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) from 1981 to 2015 semimonthly, at 8 km spatial resolution. We use a random forest (RF) of regression trees to generate a statistical model of NDVI as a function of elevation, land use, CO2 level, temperature, and precipitation. We find that NDVI has increased over the studied period, particularly at low and middle elevations and during fall (post-monsoon). We infer from the fitted RF model that the NDVI linear trend is primarily due to CO2 level (or another environmental parameter that is changing quasi-linearly), and not primarily to temperature or precipitation trends. On the other hand, interannual fluctuation in NDVI is more correlated with temperature and precipitation. RF accurately fits the available data and shows promise for estimating trends and testing hypotheses about their causes.

Plant leaf area index (LAI) is a key characteristic affecting field canopy microclimate. In addition to traditional professional measuring instruments, smartphone camera sensors have been used to measure plant LAI. However, when smartphone methods were used to measure conifer forest LAI, very different performances were obtained depending on whether the smartphone was held at the zenith angle or at a 57.5° angle. To validate further the potential of smartphone sensors for measuring conifer LAI and to find the limits of this method, this paper reports the results of a comparison of two smartphone methods with an LAI-2000 instrument. It is shown that both methods can be used to reveal the conifer leaf-growing trajectory. However, the method with the phone oriented vertically upwards always produced better consistency in magnitude with LAI-2000. The bias of the LAI between the smartphone method and the LAI-2000 instrument was explained with regard to four aspects that can affect LAI: gap fraction, leaf projection ratio, sensor field of view (FOV), and viewing zenith angle (VZA). It was concluded that large FOV and large VZA cause the 57.5° method to overestimate the gap fraction and hence underestimate conifer LAI, especially when tree height is greater than 2.0 m. For the vertically upward method, the bias caused by the overestimated gap fraction is compensated for by an underestimated leaf projection ratio.

In the context of high frequency and intensity forest fires driven by future warming and drying climate, early detection and effective control of fires are extremely important to reduce losses. Satellite remote sensing, characterized by its broad observational scope and strong repeat observation capability, has become an important method for rapid monitoring of forest fires, replacing traditional means such as manual measurement and aerial photography. This paper addresses the misjudgments caused by solely relying on changes in infrared band brightness values and single-band separation in forest fire discrimination. It constructs the angle slope index ANIR based on the red band, near-infrared band and short-wave infrared band, Angle slope index AMIR based on the short-wave infrared band, mid-infrared band and far-infrared band, and angle slope index AMNIR based on the difference between the AMIR and ANIR, integrating the strong inter-band correlations and the reflectance characteristics of visible and short-wave infrared bands to simultaneously monitor smoke and fuel biomass changes in forest fires. To address the omissions caused by single-image fire discrimination algorithms, the paper constructs time-series Angle slope difference indices ∆ANIR and ∆AMIR. To address the different fire point discrimination thresholds caused by background difference in different time and space, the paper uses the decomposed three-dimensional OTSU(Maximum inter-class variance method) algorithm to calculate the segmentation threshold of the sub-regions constructed from the AMNIR data. The methods were validated using high temporal resolution meteorological satellite Himawari-8 and ground truth fire data from Hunan Province, China, from 2018-2019. The results show that the discrimination method based on the ASITR(Angle slope indices thresholds) method exhibits an accuracy of 0.88, a missed detection rate of 0.17, and an overall evaluation value of 0.85, which is 0.09 higher in accuracy and 0.03 higher in overall evaluation than the discrimination method based on infrared bands brightness values proposed by Feng et al. [1] (accuracy 0.79, missed detection rate 0.14, overall evaluation value 0.82); the method based on the FAMN_OTSU_ASITR (Fusion of Angle slope difference index (false) data, Decomposed three-dimensional OTSU adaptive threshold segmentation Algorithm and ASITR) exhibits an accuracy of 0.85, a missed detection rate of 0.08, and an overall evaluation value of 0.88, which is 0.09 lower in missed detection rate and 0.03 higher in overall evaluation as compared to the ASITR. The results demonstrate that the forest fire discrimination method based on Angle slope indices, Himawari-8 satellite data, and the decomposed OTSU adaptive threshold segmentation algorithm can improve the accuracy of forest fire discrimination and reduce errors in missed detections.

Since the 1960s, the countries of sub-Saharan Africa have been affected by an urban crisis due to the demographic explosion in cities and the resulting land pressures. These have resulted in the proliferation of spontaneous housing areas which question the future of urban vegetation and its degree of inclusion in city planning. To analyze the state of knowledge on the research already carried out on the development of urban landscape, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, a literature review on urban forestry covering the period 1998-2022 was carried out in order to better orient future research works for a greater consideration to urban forestry and their contributions in combating the adverse effects of climate change. Out of a set of 110 scientific papers selected, 50 were considered relevant because of their direct link with urban forestry. From the analysis of this papers, a classification of the articles according to 05 themes was carried out. These are: management of green spaces in urban areas, functions of trees in an urban environment, development of urban forestry, characterization of urban tree flora and financing of urban forestry. Thus, “function of trees in an urban environment and the characterization of urban tree flora” are the most addressed respectively at 42% and 28%. “Financing urban forestry” is practically not addressed (2%). The analysis of the 50 selected articles reveals a significant geographic concentration of urban forestry research. Countries like South Africa, Kenya, and Ghana are more represented in the literature, while vast regions in Central and Western Africa (e.g., Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad, and Niger) have minimal or no documented research on urban forestry. Future research should address these underrepresented themes, as they are crucial for the long-term sustainability of urban forestry projects. Particularly, research on financing mechanisms is essential to unlock sustainable funding sources for urban forestry, a critical barrier to its expansion.

High-wind structures were identified in the Cross-Calibrated Multi-Platform (CCMP) ocean wind vector reanalysis for comparison with winds measured by satellite radiometers and synthetical aperture radar (SAR) instruments from February to October 2023. The comparison aims to evaluate bias, uncertainty, and spatial correlations with the goal of enhancing the accuracy of ocean wind datasets during tropical cyclones (TCs). In 10°longitude×10°latitude blocks, each containing a TC, Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) and Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer 2 (AMSR2) winds are 6.5% and 4.8% higher than CCMP, while Advanced Scatterometer (ASCATB) is 0.8% lower. For extratropical cyclones, AMSR2 and SMAP also show stronger winds with a 5% difference, and ASCATB is about 0.3% weaker compared to CCMP. The comparison between SAR and CCMP for TC winds, sampled at the locations and time frames of SAR tiles, indicates that SAR winds around TCs are about 9% higher than CCMP winds. Using empirically defined TC structural indices, we find that the TCs observed by CCMP are shifted in locations and lack a compact core region. A Random Forest (RF) regressor was applied to TCs in CCMP with corresponding SAR observations, nearly correcting the full magnitude of low bias in CCMP statistically, with a 15m/s correction in the core region. The hierarchy of importance among the predictors is as follows: CCMP wind speed (62%), distance of SAR pixels to the eye region (21%) and eye center (7%), and distance of CCMP pixels to the eye region (5%) and eye center.

Our study is part of the ongoing discussion concerning influencer marketing as there seems to have been a shift and social media marketing is bigger than ever. Social media outlets are excellent vehicles for fostering relationships with consumers who can be susceptible to influencer advertising. Therefore, companies now pay for posts on users’ profiles to generate popularity for products. How this approach affects consumers’ buying behavior is an interesting research question. We reference Herbert Simon’s economics of attention as an appropriate theoretical construct for describing the reality of the internet. Based on unique survey data from 513 Polish respondents, the study applies econometric methods and supervised and unsupervised machine learning techniques to identify the primary consumer groups with different characteristics of engagement and sensitivity to influencer activities, revealing the possible drivers of purchase intent. The findings provide valuable insights into consumers’ informational preferences, demonstrating how social media influencers may attract attention and drive sales.

The structure and diversity of tropical vegetation are shaped by biotic and abiotic factors, which function as environmental filters affecting plant performance in different spatial and temporal scales. We compared soil traits, vegetation structure and leaf traits (i.e., specific leaf area, polyphenols and chlorophyll content a/b and total) in early, intermediate and late successional stages of a tropical dry forests in southeastern Brazil. For this purpose, we measured leaf traits of the most abundant species in the same 18 plots (50 x 20m/ six per successional stage) in 2009 and 2018. We tested whether tree species growing in early forests have a greater investment in conservative traits related to chemical defenses and tolerance to desiccation compared to late-stage tree species. We observed contrasting results when comparing the chronosequence differences in leaf traits both in 2009 and 2018 and the temporal changes along this period. Specific leaf area was lower than expected for all successional stages while polyphenol content increased along time, contrary to other studies in tropical dry forests. These results suggest that contrasting environmental conditions such as soil water holding capacity and light availability are responsible of the observed pattern. Total chlorophyll content increase lightly, while the a/b chlorophyll ratio doubled in all successional stages, contrary to our hypothesis. Therefore, we suggest that the conservative-acquisitive spectrum in successional gradients of TDFs should be further investigated for a better understanding of plant community assemblages.

Recent advances in satellite technology have brought enormous potential to ecosystem mapping, which is one of the fundamental components of environmental studies. In this paper, a Random Forest classifier is applied for the strict assessment of the efficiency of ecosystem mapping through a detailed comparative analysis between combined Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 data and stand-alone Sentinel-2 imagery over three priority ecosystems, including wetlands, riverine areas, and mangroves in Bangladesh. The collocated images, based on the integration of Sentinel-1 data with Sentinel-2 data, would do better than Sentinel-2 imagery alone over various ecosystems. Particularly, in this study, attention focused on the Hakaluki Haor area for the wetlands, the Padma-Jamuna River confluence for the riverine ecosystem, and the Sundarban forest for mangroves. By leveraging Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data in C-band dual-polarization from Sentinel-1 and four spectral bands (blue, green, red, and near-infrared) from Sentinel-2, the study analyzes imagery from December 2022 to February 2023. A 5% cloud masking filter is applied to optical data to enhance accuracy. In this methodology, 70% of the total signature values are used for training the classification model and the remaining 30% for testing. It can be noticed from the results that with the use of fused data, remarkably high accuracy in classification has been improved, such as overall accuracies of 94.17% for mangroves, 87.30% for riverine, and 85.96% for wetland ecosystems. In contrast, the use of singular Sentinel-2 imagery yields lower accuracies of 91.56%, 85.21%, and 82.51% for the respective ecosystems. The integration of radar data is shown to provide critical information, especially in environments with dense vegetation or cloud cover, where optical data alone may be insufficient. The findings of this study underline the limitations of relying on Sentinel-2 imagery to capture complex details of diverse ecosystems and highlight the need to include Sentinel-1 data for a more holistic analysis. This fusion allows improved accuracy to be achieved, which not only brings in more depth of ecological knowledge but also underpins more effective conservation strategies.

Accurate fire severity mapping is essential for understanding the impacts of wildfires on vegetation dynamics in arid savannas. The frequent wildfires in these biomes often cause topkill, where vegetation experiences above-ground combustion, but the below-ground root structures survive, allowing for subsequent regrowth post-burn. Investigating post-fire regrowth is crucial for maintaining ecological balance, elucidating fire regimes, and enhancing the knowledge base of land managers regarding vegetation response. This study examined the relationship between bush fire severity and post-burn coppicing/regeneration events of woody vegetation in the Kalahari Desert of Botswana. Utilizing UAV-derived RGB imagery combined with a Random Forest (RF) classification algorithm, we aimed to enhance the precision of burn severity mapping at a fine spatial resolution. Our research focused on a 1 km2 plot within the Modisa Wildlife Reserve, extensively burnt by the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Fire of 2021. The UAV imagery, captured at various intervals post-burn, provided detailed orthomosaics and canopy height models, facilitating precise land cover classification and burn severity assessment. The RF model achieved an overall accuracy of 79.5% and effectively identified key burn severity indicators, including green vegetation, charred grass, and ash deposits. Our analysis revealed a >50% probability of woody vegetation regrowth in high severity burn areas six months post-burn, highlighting the resilience of these ecosystems. This study demonstrates the efficacy of low-cost UAV photogrammetry for fine scale burn severity assessment and provides valuable insights into post-fire vegetation recovery, thereby aiding land management and conservation efforts in savannas.

This study delves into the impact of artificial intelligence on students’ learning.The paper pioneers the use of kmeans classification to reduce the dimensionality of features before the classification process, which minimizes redundant information and computational overhead. This step is not commonly found in prior research.Firstly, a random forest model is established with “whether AI assistance was used to complete the paper” as the output, and various features as inputs. The analysis of the predictive accuracy when changing input features reveals the degree of influence of each feature on using AI to complete the paper. After feature selection, the remaining 6 features can still effectively predict the use of AI to complete the paper, indicating the representativeness of the extracted indicators. Subsequently, the PCA-K-means algorithm is employed to classify the use of artificial intelligence. PCA algorithm is used for dimensionality reduction of the extracted features to better characterize students’ use of AI. Three representative variables are selected, and the contribution of each feature is computed based on the factor loading matrix. Finally, the K-means algorithm is used to classify students based on the three dimensional features, showing that students can be effectively classified into 2 categories. The results indicate that the majority of students support the use of AI technology to enhance their abilities, although some students may only intend to use AI to cope with exams and similar tasks.

An information-theoretic data mining method is employed to analyze categorical spatiotemporal Geographic Information System land use data. Reconstructability Analysis (RA) is a maximum-entropy-based data modeling methodology that works exclusively with discrete data such as those in the National Land Cover Database (NLCD). The NLCD are organized into a spatial (raster) grid, and are available in consistent format for every five years from 2001 to 2021. An NLCD tool reports how much change occurred for each category of land use; for the study area examined the most dynamic class is Evergreen Forest (EFO), so the presence or absence of EFO in 2021 was chosen as the dependent variable that our data modeling attempts to predict. RA predicts the outcome with approximately 80% accuracy using a sparse set of cells from a spacetime data cube consisting of neighboring lagged-time cells. When the predicting cells are all Shrubs & Grasses there is a high probability for a 2021 state of EFO, while when the predicting cells are all EFO, there is a high probability that the 2021 state will be not-EFO. These findings are interpreted as detecting forest clear-cut cycles that show up in the data, and explain why this class is so dynamic. This study introduces a new approach to analyzing GIS categorical data and expands the range of applications that this entropy-based methodology can successfully model.

The conversion of caatinga vegetation areas into pastures in the Brazilian semiarid region has depleted soil fertility due to degradation. The natural regeneration of the caatinga has been the alternative adopted to restore soil fertility. However, the real effectiveness of this practice in re-covering organic carbon (SOC) and nutrient stocks is unknown. This work evaluated the effect of natural regeneration of the caatinga vegetation on the restoration of levels and stocks of SOC, N, and P as a strategy to maintain the sustainability of the environment. We collected soil samples every 5 cm, up to 20 cm deep, in areas of degraded pasture, caatinga in regeneration (10 years), and regenerated caatinga (35 years) to evaluate the levels and stocks of SOC, N, and P. The depth sig-nificantly affects the levels and stocks of SOC, N, and P. Stocks and levels of SOC, N, and P were higher in regenerated caatinga > regenerating caatinga > degraded pasture. The regenerated caatinga increased SOC, N, and P stocks by 115%, 110%, and 117%, respectively, compared to the degraded pasture. Although 35 years of regeneration of the caatinga has improved soil fertility, the levels and stocks of SOC, N, and P remain low.

Every year, the Montreal police are confronted with countless crimes committed by criminals. These crimes affect the quality of life of city residents and impose a socio-economic burden on the city. In this study, we conduct a comparative analysis based on several machine learning algorithms to develop a model to predict the crime category in Montreal. The performance of algorithms such as eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost), Decision Trees (DT) and Random Forest (RF) were analyzed. The performance analysis takes into account the performance metrics such as precision, accuracy, recall and F1-score. This analysis was based on crime data in Montreal from 2015 to 2023. This data is characterized by a strong imbalance between crime categories. To address the data imbalance problem, a data balancing approach based on the SMOTE-ENN algorithm was adopted. In the exploratory data analysis phase, temporal trends by crime category were highlighted. The results of the analysis showed that the XGBoost algorithm outperformed the other two. Specifically, the XGBoost algorithm achieves an accuracy of 92%, while DT and RF achieve an accuracy of 86% and 84%, respectively. As a result, XGBoost was deployed via a web application using the Flask and Swagger UI Python frameworks. This study provides the Montreal police with an effective tool to better utilize their resources in fighting crime. In addition, policymakers in the city of Montreal can use this tool to identify high-risk areas and give them more attention.

Human activities (e.g., exploitation, utilization, and conservation) exert substantial impact on forest ecological functions (FEF). The human influence on FEF significantly varies across developmental stages, which are attributed to the temporal and spatial in nature. This study evaluates some notable FEF indices (FEFI) in the 448 counties within the Yellow River basin (YRB) using panel data from the Seventh to Ninth National Forest Inventory. Data analysis involves employing the residual trends, geographical and temporal weighted regression. Results indicate that, firstly, the overall forest ecological function in the YRB is moderate to inferior, with superior FEF in counties endowed with more natural forest resources. Afforestation demonstrates a short-term improvement, but its effectiveness diminishes over time. Secondly, the positive spatial correlation is stronger among counties, characterized by both high-high and low-low agglomeration effects. Scattered planting, simple stand structure, and concentrated harvesting of forests at the identical stand ages hinder the formation of complex and large-scale FEF agglomerations. Thirdly, significant spatial-temporal differences exist in the impact of human activities on FEF. In the upper reaches of the basin, increased vegetation coverage through agricultural and forestry production benefited FEF, however, some over-exploitation of forests and grasslands is observed there. In the middle reaches, the economic development, expanding population and the greening activities help to improve FEF effectively, but excessive water using in agricultural production brought more difficulties to FEF improvement. In the lower reaches of the basin, improved wastelands and forest protection positively influence FEF. This study recommends that county governments should prioritize forest management with multi-species and multi-layered complex forests. Each county should define its position in regional development and ecological protection, considering the potential impacts on neighboring regions. This holistic approach promotes more effective integrated regional management.

Sustainable continuous cover forestry is defined and analyzed in several ways. The differential equation representing growth of the basal areas of individual trees, motivated by fundamental biological production theory by Lohmander (2017a), is analyzed and extended in different directions. From the solution of the differential equation, the basal area and the tree diameter are obtained as explicit functions of time. The diameter is a strictly increasing function of time. In the absence of competitors, the diameter increment is shown to be a strictly decreasing function of time. Hence, the diameter increment can also be interpreted as a strictly decreasing function of the diameter. Alternative forms of adjustment of the differential equation, with consideration of competition, are defined. If the competition is strong, with large trees in the vicinity of a particular tree, then the basal area increment, and the diameter increment, are reduced. The growth of a large tree is less sensitive than the growth of a small tree, to competition from other trees. Under strong competition, the basal area increment, and the diameter increment, are strictly concave functions of the size of the tree. The unique maximum of the diameter increment occurs at a higher diameter, if the competition increases. In dynamic equilibrium, the tree size frequency distribution is stationary. If natural tree mortality can be avoided via the harvest strategy, the tree size frequency distribution is a function of the size and competition dependent growth function, and the harvest strategy. Empirical tree size frequency data are used to simultaneously estimate parameters of a size and competition dependent growth function and the applied harvest strategy, via nonlinear optimization. The properties of the estimated growth function are consistent with the corresponding properties of the production theoretically motivated hypothetical function, and the properties of the estimated harvest strategy confirm the corresponding hypotheses. The R2 of the nonlinear regression exceeds 0.97. With access to an empirically estimated equilibrium tree size distribution, it is possible to: 1. Estimate size frequency relevant parameters of tree size and competition dependent growth functions for individual trees. 2. Estimate the applied harvest strategy. 3. Explain and reproduce the empirically estimated tree size equilibrium distribution.

The foraging behavior of ruminating ungulates significantly impacts forest ecosystems due to their nutritional requirements. This study focuses on inter-specific comparisons of bark browsing (stripping) between Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirb.) Franco) and silver fir (Abies alba Mill.). Field measurements were conducted at the previously established research-demonstration site "Husárik" in the Javorníky Mountains, north-western Slovakia. We didn’t only measure the sizes of wounds on stems but also assessed the dimensions of unrecovered parts of wounds, subsequently calculating areas of recovered bark patches. Then, the total areas of wounds, recovered patches, and unrecovered parts were determined. Additionally, the percentages of wound areas, recovered areas, and unrecovered areas were expressed as their proportions to the total bark surface. Influencing factors such as the position of wounds along the vertical stem profile and stem diameter class were analyzed using two- and three-way ANOVA followed by Fisher's LSD test. The results demonstrate the susceptibility of both tree species to bark browsing by ruminating ungulates, primarily red deer (Cervus elaphus L.) in our study site. Douglas fir exhibited slightly less intense browsing compared to silver fir, while silver fir had a slightly higher recovery rate. Specifically, 17.0% of the bark surface in Douglas fir and 21.5% in silver fir were browsed. The proportions of recovered areas on wounds were 62.5% and 69.6% in Douglas fir and silver fir, respectively. Regarding the vertical stem profile, the most intense browsing occurred at a height of 101-125 cm from the ground level, with rates of 40.7% in Douglas fir and 47.0% in silver fir. Browsing intensity showed negligible variation among diameter classes, which were classified as up to 35 mm, 35-50 mm, and over 50 mm. Our findings suggest that, as an introduced species, Douglas fir is not any suitable substitute for other commercially significant tree species in European countries where ruminating ungulates are overabundant.

The arguments on the origin and evolution of the evergreen broad-leaved forest in eastern Asia, especially in the evolutionary process, exist generally, even contrary in some cases. The origin and evolution of the flora of eastern Asia, the formation time of Asian monsoon, and the implications from phylogenetic and molecular biogeographic studies in some important taxa, as well as in palaeobotanical evidences, are debatable. Most researches from different disciplines suggested that the monsoon in Miocene is a key to diversification of eastern Asian flora and its evergreen broad-leaved forest. The common view is that the evergreen broad-leaved forest of East Asia is closely related to the monsoon intensity and developments, which are caused by the uplift of Himalaya-Tibet, during or after the mid-Miocene. The analysis on the floristic elements show that the present subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest in eastern Asia could have an early or ancient tropical origin and a tropical Asian affinity, but their species are dominated by the Chinese endemic or eastern Asian distribution, many of which are the tropical sister ones. The time of Himalayan uplift and intensity of monsoon climate is believed the key for the formation of the evergreen broad-leaved forest in eastern Asia. Combined existing palaeobotanical findings, the uplift of Himalayas and the formation of monsoon climate, as well as floristic elements of the subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forest, we believe that it was evolved from a Asian tropical rain forest after mid-Miocene in southeastern region of eastern Asia, while the ancient subtropical evergreen broad-leaved forests in southwestern region continuously evolved into the present subtropical ones.

The 21st century has seen the launch of new space-borne sensors based on LiDAR (light detection and ranging) technology developed in the second half of the 20th century. LiDAR was initially developed to integrate laser-focused imaging with the capability to determine distances through the measurement of signal return times, utilizing suitable sensors and data acquisition electronics. Nowadays, these sensors have transformed into robust instruments, offering novel opportunities for mapping terrain, canopy heights, and estimating above-ground biomass (AGB) across local to regional scales. This work aims to analyze the scientific impact of these sensors on large-scale for-est mapping to retrieve 3D canopy information, monitor forest degradation, estimate AGB, and model key ecosystem variables such as primary productivity and biodiversity. In this way, a worldwide bibliometric analysis of this topic was carried out based on up to 412 publications in-dexed in the Scopus database during the period 2004-2022. The results showed that the number of published documents increased exponentially in the last five years, coinciding with the commis-sioning of two new LiDAR space missions: Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat-2) and Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI). These missions are providing data since 2018 and 2019, respectively. The journal that demonstrated the highest productivity in this field was "Remote Sensing," and among the leading contributors, the top five countries in terms of publica-tions were the USA, China, the UK, France, and Germany. In the realm of prominent research in-stitutions, France boasted six, the USA had four, China had three, while the UK and Canada each had one. The upward trajectory in the number of publications recorded from 2004 to 2022 catego-rizes the subject under investigation as a highly trending research topic, particularly within the context of enhancing the administration of forest resources and engaging in global climate treaty frameworks mandating the surveillance and reporting of carbon stocks in forests. The recent launch in August 2022 of the Terrestrial Ecosystem Carbon Monitoring Satellite (TECMS; China State Administration of Forestry and Grassland), along with the planned launch in the coming years of up to three new space sensors, such as the Multi-footprint Observation LiDAR and Im-ager (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), the BIOMASS P-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) (European Space Agency), and the LiDAR Surface Topography (LIST; NASA), will greatly contribute to expanding the ability to map and monitor forest systems at very large scales. In this context, the integration of space-borne data, including imagery, SAR, and LiDAR, is anticipated to steer the trajectory of this research in the upcoming years.

Vibration monitoring is a critical aspect of assessing the health and performance of machinery and industrial processes. This study explores the application of machine learning techniques, specifically the Random Forest (RF) classification model, to predict and classify chatter—a detrimental self-excited vibration phenomenon—during machining operations. While sophisticated methods have been employed to address chatter, this research investigates the efficacy of a simplified RF model. The study leverages simulated vibration data, bypassing resource-intensive real-world data collection, to develop a versatile chatter detection model applicable across diverse machining configurations. The feature extraction process combines time-series features and Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) data features, streamlining the model while addressing challenges posed by feature selection. By focusing on the RF model’s simplicity and efficiency, this research advances chatter detection techniques, offering a practical tool with improved generalizability, computational efficiency, and ease of interpretation. The study demonstrates that innovation can reside in simplicity, opening avenues for wider applicability and accelerated progress in the machining industry.

In order to enhance the comfort of cycling, it is imperative to investigate the effects of vibration on non-motorized bicycle riding from the perspectives of road characteristics and traffic features. Through an analysis of the mechanisms by which road and traffic conditions influence cycling vibrations, 13 influencing factors were identified. Subsequently, the non-motorized bicycle lanes in Wuhan city were selected as the subject of empirical research, where three-axis accelerometers attached to the rider's torso were employed to measure and categorize vibration comfort levels. The experimental road segments were found to exhibit comfort levels falling between slightly uncomfortable and relatively uncomfortable. Further analysis of the influencing factors was conducted using the Random Forest algorithm and Logistic Regression. The results revealed that six factors significantly impact the comfort of cycling: the presence of dedicated non-motorized bicycle lanes, the absence of physical separation between non-motorized and motorized traffic, cycling speed, the number of road surface irregularities, the presence of parking areas within the non-motorized bicycle lane, and the type of non-motorized bicycle. This study provides valuable insights into the factors affecting non-motorized bicycle lane usage and contributes to the refined design of urban non-motorized bicycle infrastructure, thereby facilitating better support for sustainable urban transportation.

Infection of liver flukes (Opisthorchis viverrini) is partly due to their suitability for habitats in sub-basin areas, which causes the intermediate host to remain in the watershed system in all seasons. Spatial monitoring of fluke infection at the small basin analysis scale is important because this can enable analysis at the level of the spatial factors involved and influencing infections. The spatial mathematical model was weighted by the nine spatial factors by dividing the analysis into two levels. 1) sub-basin boundary level analyzed with ordinary least square (OLS) model used to analyze spatial factors of liver fluke aimed at analyzing spatial factors related to human liver fluke infection according to sub-basin boundaries, and 2) infection risk positional analysis level with machine learning-based forest classification and regression (FCR) and displaying predictive results of infection risk locations along stream lines. The analysis results show 4 prototype models that import different independent variable factors. The results show that Model-1 and Model-2 give the most AUC = 0.964 and the variables that influence infection risk the most were distance to stream lines, and distance to water bodies, NDMI and NDVI factors rarely affect accuracy. This FCR machine learning application approach can be applied to the analysis of infection risk areas at the sub-basin level, but independent variables must be screened with a preliminary mathematical model weighted to the spatial units in order to obtain the most accurate predictions.

Tesso Nilo National Park is one of the protected areas designated as KPA by the Decree of the Minister of Forestry No.225/Menhut-II/2004 dated July 19, 2004 covering an area of ​​38,576 ha, then expanded again through the Decree of the Minister of Forestry No.663/Menhut/2009 dated 19 October 2009 with an area of ​​± 83,068 ha. The Tesso Nilo National Park area is experiencing the dynamics of land cover changes, namely the conversion of forest land which causes the forest area to become increasingly narrow in this area. With the reduction in forest area in this area, it causes a decrease in ecosystem network connectivity due to forest fragmentation that occurs, so that forests are separated and further apart. This study aims to analyze changes in land cover in the Tesso Nilo National Park area to find out information on changes in habitat ecosystems in the last 20 years. the observations were made using satellite images in 1999, 2010 and 2019. so that it can be seen the effect of forest fragmentation on ecosystems in the Tesso Nilo National Park area. From the results of the analysis, it was found that the area of ​​forest cover in the Tesso Nilo National Park decreased from 1999 to 2019 and caused changes in the connectivity network of forest ecosystems, which was found in the study, the weakest connectivity separated forest fragments as far as 17394.47 meters due to forest cover fragmentation.

Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women worldwide. The pathogenesis of this disease is closely related to the estrogen receptor alpha subtype (ERα). Therefore, it is of great importance to develop effective inhibitors of ERα activity for the treatment of breast cancer. In this paper, we propose a novel ensemble machine learning model for quantitative structure-activity relationship of anti-breast cancer drugs, which can effectively predict drug activity in small samples with multiple characteristic variables. To avoid the problem of over-fitting caused by low-correlation independent variables, the scoring mechanism of random forest was improved by incorporating three relevance indicators, including the maximum mutual information number, Pearson correlation coefficient and distance correlation coefficient, and 20 optimal molecular descriptors were selected. The Bayesian hyperparameter optimization method was used to optimize the parameters of multiple linear regression (MLR), support vector regression (SVR), and extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost), respectively. The AdaBoost strong learner was constructed by combining the weak learner with the weighted linear addition method. The results show that the proposed ensemble learning model has the best prediction performance compared to the three basic learner models and the CNN-LSTM combination prediction model. The root mean square error was reduced by 7.60%-26.51%. The mean relative error was reduced by 6.46%-30.92%. Goodness of fit increased by 9.57%-36.94%. Finally, the biological activities of 50 candidate compounds for ERα inhibitors were predicted, and it was found that 4-[2-benzyl-1-[4-(2-pyrrolidin-1-ylethoxy)phenyl]but-1-enyl]phenol had an excellent biological activity value pIC50, which had the potential to be an ERα inhibitor. The model proposed in this paper has good prediction accuracy, which can provide an effective reference for the discovery and development of anti-breast cancer drugs.

This paper expressed three regression models that predict the lithium-ion battery life for electric cars based on a supervised machine-learning regression algorithm. The Linear Regression, Bagging Regressor, and Random Forest Regressor models will be compared for capacity prediction of lithium-ion batteries based on voltage-dependent per-cell modeling. When sufficient test data is available, three linear regression learning algorithms will train this model to give a promising battery capacity prediction result. The effectiveness of the three linear regression models will be demonstrated experimentally. The experiment table system is built with an NVIDIA Jetson Nano 4GB Developer Kit B01, a battery, an Arduino, and a voltage sensor. The Random Forest Regressor model has evaluated the model's accuracy based on the average of the square of the difference between the initial value and the predicted value in the data set (MSE (Mean Square Error)), and RMSE (Root Mean Squared Error) is smaller than the Linear Regression model, Bagging Regressor model (MSE is 516.332762; RMSE is= 22.722957). The Linear Regression model with MSE and RMSE is the biggest (MSE is 22060.500669; RMSE is= 148.527777). This result allows the Random Forest Regressor model to remain a helpful life prediction of lithium-ion batteries. Moreover, this result allows rapid identification of battery manufacturing processes and will enable users to decide to replace defective batteries when deterioration in battery performance and lifespan are identified.

This study addresses the limited coverage of regulatory monitoring for particulate matter 2.5 microns or less in diameter (PM2.5) in Thailand due to the lack of ground station data by developing a model to estimate daily PM2.5 concentrations in small regions of Thailand using satellite data at a 1-kilometer resolution. The study employs multiple linear regression and three machine learning models and finds that the random forest model performs the best for PM2.5 estimation over the period of 2011-2020. The model incorporates several factors such as Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD), Land Surface Temperature (LST), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Elevation (EV), Week of the year (WOY), and year and applies them to the entire region of Thailand without relying on monitoring station data. Model performance is evaluated using the coefficient of determination (R2) and root mean square error (RMSE), and the results indicate high accuracy for training (R2: 0.95, RMSE: 5.58 μg/m3), validation (R2: 0.78, RMSE: 11.18 μg/m3), and testing (R2: 0.71, RMSE: 8.79 μg/m3) data. These PM2.5 data can be used to analyze the short- and long-term effects of PM2.5 on population health and inform government policy decisions and effective mitigation strategies.

Through this study, we established equations for estimating the standing tree carbon stock, based on 24 tree species in multiple size classes in a case study at the Ngao Demonstration Forest (NDF) in northern Thailand. Four hundred thirty-nine wood samples from trees in mixed deciduous forest (MDF), dry dipterocarp forest (DDF), and dry evergreen forest (DEF), were collected using non-destructive methods to estimate above-ground carbon equations through statistical regression. The equations were established based on four criteria: 1) the coefficient of determination (R2), 2) Standard error of estimate (SE), 3) F-value, and 4) Significant value (p-value, α ≤ 0.05). The above-ground carbon stock (C) equations for standing trees in the MDF was C = 0.0199DBH2.1887H0.5825, for DDF was C = 0.0145DBH2.1435 H0.748, for DEF was C = 0.0167DBH2.1423H0.7070, and the general equation for all species/wood density groups was C = 0.017543DBH2.1625H0.6614, where DBH is tree diameter at breast height and H is tree total height. The above-ground carbon stock in the DDF, MDF, and DEF was 142, 53.02, and, 12 tons/ha, respectively, and the estimated above-ground carbon stock in the Mae Huad sector at the NDF was 61 tons/ha.

The rapid development of LiDAR technology has promoted great changes in forest resource surveys. The airborne LiDAR point cloud can provide precise tree height and detailed vertical structure of the tree stands. Coordinating some representative ground sample plots, LiDAR can be used to estimate key forest resource indicators such as forest stock volume, diameter at breast height, and forest biomass at a large scale. By establishing relationship models between the forest parameters of sample plots and the calculated parameters of LiDAR, these developments may eventually expand the models to large-scale forest resource surveys of entire areas. In this study, eight sample plots in northeast China are used to verify and update the information using point cloud obtained by the LiDAR scanner riegl-vq-1560i. Firstly, the tree crowns are segmented using the profile-rotating algorithm, and dominant trees height are used to check and rectify the tree locations. Secondly, considering the correlation between forestry parameters and tree species, we establish models to distinguish between species using geometric characteristics of tree crowns. Thirdly, when the tree species is known, parameters such as height, crown width, diameter at breast height, biomass and stock volume can be extracted from trees. The prediction models of forestry parameters can also be verified, which can be extended to accurate large-scale forestry surveys based on LiDAR data. Finally, experiment results demonstrate that the F-score of the eight plots in the tree segmentation exceed 0.95, the accuracy of tree species correction exceeds 90%, and the R2 of tree height, east-west canopy width, north-south canopy width, diameter at breast height, above-ground biomass and stock volume are 0.893, 0.757, 0.694, 0.840, 0.896 and 0.891, respectively. The above results indicate that the LiDAR-based estimation of forestry parameters is practical and that these forestry parameter prediction models can be widely applied in forest resource monitoring.

In recent years, the ecological and economic values of forest plants have been gradually recognized worldwide. However, the growing global demand for new forest plant varieties with higher wood production capacity and better stress tolerance cannot be satisfied by conventional phenotype-based breeding, marker-assisted selection, and genomic selection. In the recent past, diverse omics technologies, including genomics, transcriptomics, epigenomics, proteomics, and metabolomics, have been developed rapidly, providing powerful tools for the precision genetic breeding of forest plants. Genomics lays a solid foundation for understanding complex biological regulatory networks, while other omics technologies provide different perspectives at different levels. Multi-omics integration has combined the different omics technologies, becoming a powerful tool for genome-wide functional element identification in forest plant breeding. This review summarizes the recent progress of omics technologies and their applications in the genetic studies of forest plants. It will provide forest plant breeders with an elementary knowledge of multi-omics techniques for future breeding programs.

In Africa, vector-borne diseases (VBDs) are still a major public health issue especially in cities that gather an increasing human population. Market gardening practices, for example, can favor the transmission of urban malaria, while insufficient water supply and waste management favor the circulation of arboviroses related to Aedes mosquitoes. Urban planning is a major challenge to mitigate vector risks. As a planning strategy, greening is a concept that is increasingly considered as a major element impacting the well-being of inhabitants, but also for the restoration of biodiversity in cities. Nevertheless, the impact of urban green spaces on vector risk remains poorly investigated, as they may serve as refuge for vectors. This is why the diversity of mosquitoes in terms of species and larval habitat, through larval prospections in environmental water collections and human landing catches, is studied here at an intra-urban interface area between a forest and an urban ecosystem in order to assess the vector risk generated by preserving a forest patch in the heart of Libreville, capital of Gabon, central Africa. Out of 104 water containers explored, 94 (90.4%) were artificial, mainly comprising gutters, used tires, and plastic bottles, while 10 (9.6%) were natural, comprising a puddle, streams, and tree holes. The majority of the water collections recovered (73.1%) were found outside of the forested area, natural and artificial ones considered together. A total of 770 mosquitoes belonging to 14 species were collected from water collections. The mosquito community was largely dominated by anthropophilic species like Aedes albopictus (33.5%), Culex quinquefasciatus (30.4%), and Lutzia tigripes (16.5%). The Shannon index of diversity showed that mosquitoes were almost twice less diversified inside the forest (0.7) than outside (1.3). However, both communities were quite similar in terms of common species and relative abundance (Morisita-Horn index = 0.7). Regarding Human landing catches, Aedes albopictus (86.1%) was the most aggressive species, putting people at risk of Aedes-borne viruses. This study uncovered the importance of considering urban forested ecosystems as potential drivers of disease emergence and spread in urban areas, as they might locally boost urban mosquito densities due to poor environmental practices, mainly maintained by humans through poor environmental practices. In Gabon, this study should contribute to guide targeted vector control strategies, especially regarding the implementation of policies for a better environmental management and vector surveillance in urbanized areas.

The modification of land use is a crucial factor in the dysfunction of ecosystems. It considerably influences the hydrological cycle of basins. This study focuses on the Oueme basin, which represents almost half of the total area of Benin, and describes the current and future evolution of its land cover using the maps of the Land Use Land Cover Dynamics project (1975, 2000 and 2013). A temporal analysis of the surface states was performed with QGIS and the potential land cover in 2025, 2050 and 2085 was estimated using the Markov chain algorithm in the IDRISI software. The results show that the Oueme basin is predominantly savanna (77.70% in 1975, 66.29% in 2000 and 57.10% in 2013). Forest areas, which represented the second class in 1975 with a total proportion of 13.34%, have gradually decreased to 8.66% and 6.89% respectively in 2000 and 2013. Conversely, cultivated areas more than tripled in 2000 and quadrupled in 2013. Residential areas are increasing very strongly in the southern part of the basin with an amplification in the recent period (6% between 2000-2013 against 2% between 1975-2000). The recent period is more exposed to changes in surface condition and these changes are likely to be amplified in the future (probable total disappearance of forested areas in 2085). We recommend clarifying the impacts that each land use category generates/will generate on the hydrological cycle of this basin.

Immersive experiences in green areas and particularly in forests have long been known to produce beneficial effects for human health. However, the exact determinants and mechanisms leading to healthy outcomes remain to be elucidated. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether inhaling plant-emitted biogenic volatile compounds, namely monoterpenes (MTs), can produce specific effects on anxiety. Data from 505 subjects participating in 39 structured forest therapy sessions in different Italian sites, were collected. Monoterpenes air concentration was measured at each site. STAI State questionnaires were administered before and after the sessions as a measure of anxiety. A propensity score matching analysis was then performed, considering an above-average exposure to inhalable air MTs as the treatment: the estimated effect was -1.28 STAI-S points (95% C.I. -2.51 to -0.06, p = 0.04), indicating that the average effect of exposure to high MT air concentrations during forest therapy sessions is to decrease anxiety.

The seasonal and vertical spatial variation characteristics of total N, NH4+—N and NO3-—N in the soil in Picea mongolica forest at different stand ages were studied. The results showed that: (1) NH4+ —N in the soil in Picea mongolica forest was positively correlated with sample date, soil NO3-—N and forest age (P <0.05), and negatively correlated with soil depth (P < 0.01). NO3-—N in the soil in Picea mongolica forest was negatively correlated with sample date and forest age (P < 0.05), and significantly negatively correlated with soil depth (P < 0.01); (2) the content of NH4+—N is greater than that of NO3-—N in each soil layer of Picea mongolica forest at three forest ages. The correlation analysis showed which had an impact on the content of NH4+—N and NO3-—N in the soil in Picea mongolica forest. The content was lower in February and November, and higher in May and August；(3) The contents of total N, NH4+—N and NO3-—N in the soil of Picea mongolica forest in the three forest ages increased with the depth of soil layer (0-50cm), and showed an overall downward trend. The contents of NH4+—N in the soil layer of young forest (0-10cm, 10-20cm and 20-30cm, 30-40cm and 40-50cm) were significantly different (P＜0.05), and the contents of NO3-—N were also significantly different (P＜0.05), while their contents of middle-aged forest and near mature forest increased with the depth of soil layer, There was no significant difference in the content of NH4+—N; (4) The content of NH4+—N in the soil in Picea mongolica forest generally showed the following change trend near mature forest > middle-aged forest > young forest. The change trend of soil NO3-—N content is consistent with that of the content of NH4+—N in the soil in Picea mongolica forest.

Management approaches inspired by the variability of natural disturbances are expected to produce forests in the future that will be significantly more resilient and better adapted to local environmental conditions. Due to climate change, windstorms are becoming increasingly common resulting in the destruction not only of extensive forest areas but, quite often, of small-sized and scattered forest lands that can ultimately become home to insects and disease dissemination sites. In the present study, an attempt is made to identify and record areas in the northeastern forests of Greece covered by mixed stands of conifers and broadleaves that experienced massive windthrow following local storms. Based on tree-level data, local topographic features, forest characteristics and the mechanical properties of green wood, a reliable model, to be used for the prediction of similar disturbances in the future, has been created after a thorough comparative study of the most well-known intelligent machine learning algorithms.

The global carbon neutrality challenge places a spotlight on forests as carbon sinks. However, greenhouse gas (GHG) balances of wood for material and energy use often reveal GHG emission savings in comparison with a non-wood reference. Is it thus better to increase wood production and use, or to conserve and expand the carbon stock in forests? GHG balances of wood products mostly ignore the dynamics of carbon storage in forests, which can be expressed as the carbon storage balance in forests (CSBF). For Germany, a CSBF of 0.25 to 1.15 t CO2/m³ wood can be assumed. When the CSBF is integrated into the GHG balance, GHG mitigation substantially deteriorates and wood products may even turn into a GHG source, e.g. in the case of energy wood. Here, building up the forest carbon sink would be the better option. We conclude that it is vital to include the CSBF in GHG balances of wood products if the wood is extracted from forests. Only then can GHG balances provide political decision-makers and stakeholders in the wood sector with a complete picture of GHG emissions.

During the COVID-19 lockdown in Wuhan, transportation, industrial production and other human activities declined significantly, as did the NO2 concentration. In order to assess the relative contributions of different factors to reductions of air pollutants, sensitivity experiments were implemented by random forest (RF) model, with the comparison of contributions of meteorology, road traffic, and emission sources between different periods. Besides, an emulator was operated to suggest an appropriate limit for control of transportation. The RF models showed different mechanisms for air pollutants. Within-city Migration index (WMI) was more important in the normal, pre-lockdown and post-pandemic model while Out-Migration Index (OMI) was emphasized in the lockdown model. In the COVID-19 lockdown period, 73.3% of the reduction can be attributed to the decreased road traffic, showing massive impact of road traffic on the air quality. In the post-pandemic period, meteorology controlled about 42.2% of the decrease and emissions from industry and household controlled 40.0% while road traffic only contributed to 17.8%. It was suggested that priority of restriction should be given to road traffic within the city. A limit of less than 40% on the control of the road traffic can get a better effect, especially for cities with severe traffic pollution.

Transport of carbon, major and trace element by rivers in permafrost-affected regions is one of the key factor of circumpolar aquatic ecosystem response to climate warming and permafrost thaw. While seasonal and annual export fluxes (yields) of carbon (C) and inorganic solutes are fairly well known for all large Arctic rivers, spatial variations in elementary concentration along the river length and among its tributaries remain poorly understood. Moreover, the landscape factors controlling riverine element concentration in permafrost-affected regions are still poorly constrained. This is especially true for the largest river of Eastern Siberia, the Lena River, which drains through continuous permafrost zones with highly variable lithology and vegetation. Here we present the results of C, major and trace element measurements over a 2600-km transect of the Lena River main stem (upper and middle reaches) including its 30 tributaries, conducted at the peak of the spring flood. There were two main group of solutes in the main stem depending on their spatial pattern: i) elements that decreased their concentrations downstream, from SW to NE (Cl, SO4, DIC, Li, B, Na, Mg, K, Ca, As, Sr, Mo, Sb, Ba and U), which probably reflected a decrease in the proportion of carbonate rocks in the watershed and the degree of groundwater feeding, and ii) elements that increased their concentrations downstream (Al, Ti, Cr, Fe, Ga, Rb, Y, Zr, Nb, Cs, REEs, Hf and Th), which was tentatively linked to an increase in organic C stock in soils, larch forest coverage and enhanced mobilization of lithogenic elements from silicate soil minerals. Based on landscape parameters of Lena tributaries, we tested the impact of major environmental factors on major and trace element spatial pattern. Among all the variables, the proportion of sporadic permafrost on the watershed strongly controlled concentrations of soluble highly mobile elements (Cl, B, DIC, Li, Na, K, Mg, Ca, Sr, Mo, As and U). Another important factor of element concentration control in the Lena River tributaries was the coverage of watershed by light (B, Cl, Na, K, U) and deciduous (Fe, Ni, Zn, Ge, Rb, Zr, La, Th) needle-leaf forest (pine and larch). The latter, however, could also reflect the DOC-enhanced transport of low-soluble trace elements in the NW part of the basin. This part of the basin is dominated by silicate rocks and continuous permafrost, as compared to carbonate rock-dominated and groundwater-affected SW part of the Lena River basin. Overall, the impact of rock lithology and permafrost on major and trace solutes of the Lena River basin during the peak of spring flood was mostly detected at the scale of the main stem. Such an impact for tributaries was much less pronounced, because of the dominance of surface flow and lower hydrological connectivity with deep groundwater in the latter. Future changes in the river water chemistry linked to climate warming and permafrost thaw at the scale of the whole river basin are likely to be linked to changes in spatial pattern of dominant vegetation, rather than to the permafrost regime. We argue that comparable studies of large, permafrost-impacted rivers during most contrasting seasons, including winter baseflow, should allow efficient prediction of future changes in riverine ‘inorganic’ hydrochemistry induced by permafrost thaw.

The goal of this study was to analyze the forest degradation in the Reserve for San Rafael National Park, Paraguay, during the period 2005-2019. This Reserve is one of the most important forest remnants of the Upper Paraná Atlantic Forest Ecoregion. A multitemporal analysis of degradation was carried out due to the occurrence of three disturbances: forest fires, a twister and illicit crops, using the Continuous Degradation Detection (CODED) algorithm, for which 3 factors were considered: variations due to pixel in the NDFI index values before, during and after every disturbance registered. In this context, the phenomenon with the greatest impact in terms of magnitude of degradation were the forest fires of 2005, being that year at the same time, the one that reported the highest degradation values. Secondly, there are the illicit crops established until the first semester of 2019, and lastly, the twister that occurred in 2017. Our findings demonstrate that CODED algorithm can detect multi-temporal degradation events in a Subtropical Broadleaf Forest, and the post-disturbance regeneration process after every disturbance tends to occur immediately. The response in terms of degradation-regeneration is highly variable, depending of the nature and severity of each disturbance and the vegetation recovery dynamics.

Wrist-worn fitness trackers and smartwatches are proliferating with an incessant attention towards health tracking. Given the growing popularity of wrist-worn devices across all age groups, a rigorous evaluation for recognizing hallmark measures of physical activities and estimating energy expenditure is needed to compare their accuracy across the lifespan. The goal of the study was to build machine learning models to recognize physical activity type (sedentary, locomotion, and lifestyle) and intensity (low, light, and moderate), identify individual physical activities, and estimate energy expenditure. The primary aim of this study was to build and compare models for different age groups: young [20-50 years], middle (50-70 years], and old (70-89 years]. Participants (n = 253, 62% women, aged 20-89 years old) performed a battery of 33 daily activities in a standardized laboratory setting while wearing a portable metabolic unit to measure energy expenditure that was used to gauge metabolic intensity. Tri-axial accelerometer collected data at 80-100 Hz from the right wrist that was processed for 49 features. Results from random forests algorithm were quite accurate in recognizing physical activity type, the F1-Score range across age groups was: sedentary [0.955 – 0.973], locomotion [0.942 – 0.964], and lifestyle [0.913 – 0.949]. Recognizing physical activity intensity resulted in lower performance, the F1-Score range across age groups was: sedentary [0.919 – 0.947], light [0.813 – 0.828], and moderate [0.846 – 0.875]. The root mean square error range was [0.835 – 1.009] for the estimation of energy expenditure. The F1-Score range for recognizing individual physical activities was [0.263 – 0.784]. Performances were relatively similar and the accelerometer data features were ranked similarly between age groups. In conclusion, data features derived from wrist worn accelerometers lead to high-moderate accuracy estimating physical activity type, intensity and energy expenditure and are robust to potential age-differences.

Substances that can modify the androgen receptor pathway in humans and animals are entering the environment and food chain with the proven ability to disrupt hormonal systems and leading to toxicity and adverse effects on reproduction, brain development, and prostate cancer, among others. State-of-the-art databases with experimental data of human, chimp, and rat effects by chemicals have been used to build machine learning classifiers and regressors and evaluate these on independent sets. Different featurizations, algorithms, and protein structures lead to dif- ferent results, with deep neural networks (DNNs) on user-defined physicochemically-relevant features developed for this work outperforming graph convolutional, random forest, and large featurizations. The results show that these user-provided structure-, ligand-, and statistically-based features and specific DNNs provided the best results as determined by AUC (0.87), MCC (0.47), and other metrics and by their interpretability and chemical meaning of the descriptors/features. In addition, the same features in the DNN method performed better than in a multivariate logistic model: validation MCC = 0.468 and training MCC = 0.868 for the present work compared to evalu- ation set MCC = 0.2036 and training set MCC = 0.5364 for the multivariate logistic regression on the full, unbalanced set. Techniques of this type may improve AR and toxicity description and predic- tion, improving assessment and design of compounds. Source code and data are available at https://github.com/AlfonsoTGarcia-Sosa/ML

Terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) provides detailed three-dimensional representation of the surrounding forest structure. However, due to close-range hemispherical scanning geometry, the ability of TLS technique to comprehensively characterize all trees and especially the upper parts of forest canopy is often limited. In this study, we investigated how much forest characterization capacity can be improved in managed Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) stands if TLS point cloud is complemented with a photogrammetric point cloud acquired from above the canopy using unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). In this multisensorial (TLS+UAV) close-range sensing approach, the used UAV point cloud data was considered feasible especially in characterizing the vertical forest structure and improvements were obtained in estimation accuracy of tree height as well as plot-level basal-area weighted mean height (H_g) and mean stem volume (V_mean). Most notably the root mean square error (RMSE) in H_g improved from 0.88 m to 0.58 m and the bias improved from -0.75 m to -0.45 m with the multisensorial close-range sensing approach. However, in managed Scots pine stands the mere TLS captured also the upper parts of the forest canopy rather well. Both approaches were capable of deriving stem number, basal area, V_mean, H_g and basal area-weighted mean diameter with a relative RMSE less than 5.5% for all of the sample plots. Although the multisensorial close-range sensing approach mainly enhanced characterization of forest vertical structure in single-species, single-layer forest conditions, representation of more complex forest structures may benefit more from point clouds collected with sensors of different measurement geometries.

Archaeological topography identification from high-resolution DEMs is a current method that is used with high success in archaeological prospecting of wide areas. I present a methodology trough which burial mounds (tumuli) from LiDAR DEMS can be identified. This methodology uses geomorphometric and statistical methods to identify with high accuracy burial mound candidates. Peaks, defined as local elevation maxima are found as a first step. In the second step, local convexity watershed segments and their seeds are compared with positions of local peaks and the peaks that correspond or have in vicinity local convexity segments seeds are selected. The local convexity segments that correspond to these selected peaks are further feed to a Random Forest algorithm together with shape descriptors and descriptive statistics of geomorphometric variables in order to build a model for the classification. Multiple approaches to tune and selected the proper training dataset, settings and variables were tested. The validation of the model was performed on the full dataset where the training was performed and on an external dataset in order to test the usability of the method for other areas in a similar geomorphological and archaeological setting. The validation was performed against manually mapped and field checked burial mounds from two neighbor study areas of 100 km² each. The results show that by training the Random Forest on a dataset composed of between 75% to 100% of the segments corresponding to burial mounds and ten times more non-burial mounds segments selected using latin hypercube sampling, 93% of the burial mound segments from the external dataset are identified. There are 42 false positive cases that need to be checked, and there are two burial mound segments missed. The method shows great promise to be used for burial mound detection on wider areas by delineating a certain number of tumuli mounds for model training.

Trace metals can enter some natural regions with low human disturbance from atmospheric circulation, but little information is available regarding how the canopy can retained trace metals. Therefore, a representative sub-alpine spruce plantation was selected to investigate the net throughfall fluxes of eight trace metals (Fe, Mn, Cu, Zn, Al, Pb, Cd and Cr) of closed canopy and gap-edge canopy from August 2015 to July 2016. Over a one-year observational period, the annual fluxes of Al, Zn, Fe, Mn, Cu, Cd, Cr and Pb were 7.29 kg·ha^-1, 2.30 kg·ha^-1, 7.02 kg·ha^-1, 0.16 kg·ha^-1, 0.19 kg·ha^-1, 0.06 kg·ha^-1, 0.56 kg·ha^-1 and 0.24 kg·ha^-1, respectively, in the deposited precipitation. The annual net throughfall fluxes of these trace metals were 1.73 kg·ha^-1, 0.9 kg·ha^-1, 1.68kg·ha^-1, -0.032 kg·ha^-1, 0.04 kg·ha^-1, 0.018 kg·ha^-1, 0.093 kg·ha^-1 and 0.087kg·ha^-1, respectively, in the gap-edge canopy and -1.6 kg·ha^-1, 1.13 kg·ha^-1, 1.65 kg·ha^-1, -0.10 kg·ha^-1, 0.05 kg·ha^-1, 0.03 kg·ha^-1, 0.26 kg·ha^-1 and 0.15 kg·ha^-1, respectively, in the closed canopy. The closed canopy displayed a greater filter effect on the trace metals from precipitation than did the gap-edge canopy in the sub-alpine forest. In the rainy season, the net filtering ratio of trace metals ranged from -66%-89% in the closed canopy and from -52% to 25% in the gap-edge canopy. However, the net filtering ratio of all trace metals was greater than 50% in the closed canopy in the snowy season. Therefore, the results suggested that the most trace metals moving through the forest canopy are taken up rather than by rainfall leaching; moreover, the closed canopy can efficiently take up trace metals in the snowy season.

If given the correct remotely sensed information, machine learning can accurately describe soil moisture conditions in a heterogeneous region at the large scale based on soil moisture readings at the small scale through rule transference across scale. This paper reviews an approach to increase soil moisture resolution over a sample region over Australia using the Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) sensor and Landsat 8 only and a validation experiment using Sentinal-2 and the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR-E) over Nevada. This approach uses an inductive localized approach, replacing the need to obtain a deterministic model in favor of a learning model. This model is adaptable to heterogeneous conditions within a single scene unlike traditional polynomial fitting models and has fixed variables unlike most learning models. For the purposes of this analysis, the SMAP 36 km soil moisture product is considered fully valid and accurate. Landsat bands coinciding in collection date with a SMAP capture are down sampled to match the resolution of the SMAP product. A series of indices describing the Soil-Vegetation-Atmosphere Triangle (SVAT) relationship are then produced, including two novel variables, using the down sampled Landsat bands. These indices are then related to the local coincident SMAP values to identify a series of rules or trees to identify the local rules defining the relationship between soil moisture and the indices. The defined rules are then applied to the Landsat image in the native Landsat resolution to determine local soil moisture. Ground truth comparison is done via a series of grids using point soil moisture samples and air-borne L-band Multibeam Radiometer (PLMR) observations done under the SMAPEx-5 campaign. This paper uses a random forest due to its highly accurate learning against local ground truth data yet easily understandable rules. The predictive power of the inferred learning soil moisture algorithm did well with a mean absolute error of 0.054 over an airborne L-band retrieved surface over the same region.

Turbulent flows over and within forest canopies have recently been modeled with success using Large Eddy Simulations (LES). Validation exercises against experimental data suggest that models can be applied with a high degree of confidence for many applications, mechanical and physiological plant/atmosphere interaction analysis, seed or pollen dispersal, wildfire spread and firebrand transport, or investigation of causes of eddy-covariance technique bias. Long distances required for shear-induced turbulence to equilibrate, result in the widespread use of cyclic boundary conditions in LES atmospheric boundary layer studies. Vegetation drag dissipates air momentum in the atmosphere, but equilibrium is often achieved through compensatory momentum source, supplied by macro-scale pressure gradient forcing. Unfortunately, both classical Ekman balance or simple spatially-constant pressure gradient techniques for implementing this forcing have major drawbacks in the context of cyclic boundary conditions for the applications listed above. Among them, it is difficult to specify aspects of the mean velocity profile such as a specific desired wind velocity and direction at a reference height. In the present paper, we propose a new technique for capturing the effects of a large-scale pressure gradient force (LSPGF) that can be used at stand scale and enables simulation of realistic and specifiable wind fields. Several variants of this LSPGF are developed and analyzed here and validated against experimental data. Although this LSPGF technique is developed in the context of HIGRAD/FIRETEC wildfire simulations, LSPGF can be used for any LES wind modeling application aimed at generating detailed stand-scale wind fields with resolved turbulence and shear profiles consistent with vegetation structure in the boundary layer.

The scene for regional biogeography and human settlements in Central Amazonia is set by the river network, which presumably consolidated in the Pliocene. However, we present geomorphological and sediment chronological data showing that the river network has been anything but stable. Even during the last 50 kyr, the tributary relationships have repeatedly changed for four major rivers, together corresponding to one third of the discharge of the Amazon. The latest major river capture event converted the Japurá from a tributary of the Rio Negro to a tributary of the Amazon only 1000 years ago. Such broad-scale lability implies that rivers cannot have been as efficient biogeographical dispersal barriers as has generally been assumed, but that their effects on human societies can have been even more profound. Climate change and deforestation scenarios predict increasing water levels during peak floods, which will likely increase the risk of future river avulsions. This may have disastrous consequences for the local human societies, especially in those areas where the current floodplains are at only marginally lower elevations than the nearest water divide. We suggest that the prevailing paradigm of rivers as principal structuring elements of Amazonian biogeography needs to be re-evaluated, and that land use planning and civil risk assessment should take the possibility of river avulsions into account.

The increase in tobacco production while ameliorating the condition of the participant households has caused challenges to stakeholders particularly those in the governance of forest resources upon which the sector is hinged. Massive deforestation has proceeded at an alarmingly high level, in a way that threatens the long term viability of the tobacco sector and sustainability of natural forest resources. The entrance of previously disadvantaged majority into the once minority-dominated tobacco sector (and economy) in a quest to improving their livelihoods, is driving forest landscape changes that pose inherent environmental challenges including climate change. This article adopts institutional and landscape approaches to explore and explain the drivers, nexus and implications of smallholder tobacco as a livelihood strategy to the forest landscape changes and the subsequent imperative for governance of the sustainable utilization of forest resources in Zimbabwe. Drawing on documentary evidence the paper concludes that this situation poses a dilemma to forest and livelihood policies, hence the need to examine new institutional and livelihood initiatives.

Field experiments were carried out during 2011-2014 at the Research and Experimental Center to Combating Desertification located in the Elsen Tasarkhai station of central Mongolia. The study was aimed to identify the effects of oxidized brown coal humic acid fertilizer on the relative growth rate of several trees for forest rehabilitation. The trees used were Populus sibirica, Salix ledebouriana and Acer tataricum. The experiment was carried out with the concentrations of 2,000, 10,000 and 20,000 mg L-1 of humic acid fertilization treatments. The measurement of relative height growth rate (RHGR) was conducted for a period of 4 years. The treatments showed significant differences within humic fertilizer concentrations which differed depending on the species. Compared to the monthly RHGR over the study, the treatment of fertilizers were significantly better for tree growth. P. sibirica in the 10,000 and 20,000 mg L-1 humic acid fertilizers had significant height growth rates. In addition, when the humic acid treatments were compared to control, A. tataricum decreased over the years which were statistically significant for high growth rate and a positive effect of humic acid fertilization treatments was observed. Furthermore, results showed that oxidized brown coal humic acid fertilizers as organic fertilizer can have a positive effect for the growth of A. tataricum during the study years. The results showed that the soil chemical properties EC, CO2, NO3, and K2O were significant among all the treatments compared to the control. The effect on P2O5 statistically significantly increased among all the treatments. However, pH and Mg were not significant effect among all the treatments. Combining the results obtained from the oxidized brown coal humic acid fertilization with sustainable land management practices can help improve soil organics for environmental issues in degraded sandy soil regions.

This study evaluated batch fermentation modes, namely, separate hydrolysis and fermentation (SHF), Quasi-simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (Q-SSF), and simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF), and fermentation conditions, i.e., enzyme and yeast loadings, nutrient supplementation and sterilization, on high titer bioethanol production from SPORL-pretreated Douglas-fir forest residue without detoxification. The result indicated Q-SSF and SSF were obviously superior to SHF operation in terms of ethanol yield. The enzyme loading showed a strong positive correlation between enzyme loading and the ethanol yield. The nutrient supplementation and sterility was not necessary for ethanol production from SPORL-pretreated Douglas-fir. The yeast loading showed no significant influence on the ethanol yield for typical SSF conditions. The terminal ethanol titer of 43.2 g/L, or 75.1% theoretical based on glucose, mannose, and xylose theoretical was achieved when SSF was conducted at the condition of following: whole slurry solids loading of 15%, enzyme loading of 20 FPU/g glucan, 1.8 g/kg (wet) yeast loading, without nutrition supplementation and sterilization, at 38°C, on shake flask at 150 rpm for 96h. It is believed that with mechanical mixing, enzyme loading can be substantially reduced with affect ethanol yield by using a long fermentation time.

Quantifying forest carbon storage to better manage climate change and its effects requires accurate estimation of forest structural parameters such as canopy height. Variables from remote sensing data and machine-learning models are tools that are being increasingly used for this purpose. This study modelled canopy height of forest-savannah mosaics in the Sudano-Guinean zone of Togo. Relative heights were extracted from GEDI and ICESat-2 products, which were combined with optical, radar and topographic variables for canopy height modelling. We tested four methods: Random Forest (RF); Support Vector Machine (SVM); Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost); and Deep Neural Network (DNN). The RF algorithm obtained the best predictions using 98% relative height (RH98). The best performing result was obtained from variables extracted from GEDI data (r = 0.84; RMSE = 4.15 m; MAE = 2.36 m), compared to ICESat-2 (r = 0.65; RMSE = 5.10 m; MAE = 3.80 m). Models that were developed during the study, from the combination of multisource and multisensor data, can be applied over large areas in forest-savannah mosaics, thereby contributing to better monitoring of forest dynamics according to the objectives and requirements of REDD+.

This study evaluates and contrasts the changes in vegetation cover over three decades in two forest areas in northern Mexico with different management statuses: one with sustainable forest exploitation and the other under protection as a Flora and Fauna Protection Area (FFPA). The hypothesis proposed that both areas would maintain or increase their vegetation cover since 1995. Using QGIS 3.32 “Lima” software and supervised and unsupervised classification methods, satellite images from the periods 1995-2008, 2008-2014, 2014-2021, and 1995-2022 were analyzed. The results showed that the Ejido El Largo y Anexos significantly increased forest areas and reduced grasslands due to sustainable management practices, with notable expansion of pine-oak and pine forests. In contrast, the Tutuaca Flora and Fauna Protection Area (FFPA) showed a notable loss of oak and oak-pine forests, suggesting ineffectiveness in its conservation policies. However, a lesser loss of Douglas fir forest was observed, indicating some effective protection efforts. The comparison reveals opposing dynamics: while Ejido El Largo y Anexos demonstrates success in sustainable management, the Tutuaca FFPA faces conservation challenges. In conclusion, this study highlights the need for active management approaches to maintain ecosystem cover and functionality.

Bark beetles are one of the major causes of tree mortality in coniferous forests worldwide. The large-scale disturbances by beetle outbreaks have strongly increased in Honduras and other countries, leading to significant ecological, economic, and social consequences. However, the taxonomy, local distribution, and environmental aspects of most bark beetles and their biological predators remain poorly studied. Here, we applied a morphological approach to identify Scolytinae individuals across different forest areas in Honduras. Moreover, the barcoding approach was used by amplifying and sequencing the mitochondrial COI gene. The intraspecific genetic diversity of Ips apache was also analyzed. 1,131 individuals were examined, and 27 genera were identified. Most of the specimens were identified as belonging to the genus Ips, accounting for 53.2% of the total. Xyleborus accounted for 16.5% and Temnoscheila accounted for 10%. Less than four individuals were found for fifteen genera. Ips, Temnoscheila, Xyleborus, Hypothenemus and Pityophthorus exhibited the most extensive geographic distribution among the sampled sites. At the genus level, Olancho, El Paraíso, and Copán displayed the highest diversity. This study is the first report of two genera (Xylomeira and Stephanopachys) in Honduran pine forests. Among individuals of I. apache, there was evidence of intraspecific genetic diversity, but no population structure was detected. While our findings update the list of bark beetles and biological predators associated with Honduran coniferous forests, more taxonomic inventories and ecological studies are required to understand the spread of bark beetles in pine forests.

Our research assesses the effects of four forest species, namely Swietenia macrophylla King, Swietenia mahogany (L.) Jack., Pinus occidentalis Swartz, and Pinus caribaea Morelet var. Caribaea, on organic carbon (OC) dynamics and carbon dioxide equivalent balance (BCO2 Eq.) in the soils beneath these species. Reforestation projects in the study region cover 1,200, 543, 770, and 1,152 hectares, with these four species, respectively, being the most relevant species in reforestation projects within the country. To determine the BCO2 Eq. per unit area, we compared the greenhouse gas (GHG) fluxes of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), and nitrous oxide (N2O) with the OC reserves found in the mineral soil to a depth of 30 cm and in the forest litter. For 18 months, we conducted field measurements in sixteen stands, four for each species. Our results indicate that S. macrophylla absorbed the highest amount of CO2, while S. mahogany released the highest amount into the atmosphere. BCO2 Eq. from S. macrophylla soils was -23.19 metric tons of CO2 Eq. ha-1 year-1, while for P. occidentalis, S. mahogany, and P. caribaea, the corresponding quantities were -3.838, -2.299, and +0.982, respectively. During the measurement period, soils under S. macrophylla, P. occidentalis, and P. caribaea were net sinks of CO2 Eq., while soils under S. mahogany behaved as a source. The absorption rate of CO2 Eq. from the atmosphere was approximately 6, 10, and 24 times higher in S. macrophylla when compared to the respective rates of P. occidentalis, P. caribaea, and S. mahagony.

Timely and accurate acquisition of information on distribution of the crop planting structure in Loess Plateau of eastern Gansu Province, one of the most important agricultural areas in western China, is crucial for promoting fine management of agriculture and ensuring food security. In this study, the Object-Based Image Classification (OBIC), the Random Forest (RF) and Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) models were employed to classify the crop planting structure of four representative test areas in Qingyang City in a precise manner. Firstly, different optimal segmentation scales for various crops were selected using the Estimation of Scale Parameter 2 (ESP2) tool and the Ratio of Mean Difference to Neighbors(ABS) to Standard Deviation (RMAS)model. The images were then segmented through multiresolution segmentation combined with the Canny Edge Detection algorithm. Secondly, the L1 regularized logistic regression model was utilized to select and optimize 39 spatial feature factors including spectral, textural, geometric, and index features, in conjunction with phenological factors. Lastly, under the multi-level classification framework, the Random Forest (RF) classifier and Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model, combined with object-based multiresolution segmentation, was used to classify the crop planting structure. The findings show that: Thanks to the Canny Edge Detection algorithm, we can obtain a more complete boundary of the segmented objects and improve the separability. The optimal segmentation scales for corn, vegetables, and buckwheat were found to be 55, 70, and 35, respectively, while wheat and apple had optimal segmentation scales of 65. In addition to phenological characteristics, the number of selected spatial features for corn, vegetables, buckwheat, wheat, and apple were 9, 7, 16, 12, and 10, respectively. The CNN model demonstrated high consistency with the RF model in the classification results, but the accuracy of RF model is higher than that of CNN model on the whole. The overall accuracy of classification using RF model in four test areas registered 91.93%, 94.92%, 89.37% and 90.68%, respectively. This paper introduced crop phenological factors, effectively improving the extraction precision of shattered agricultural planting structure in the Loess Plateau of eastern Gansu Province. Its findings have important application value in crop monitoring, management, food security and other related fields.

Forest resources are renewable,rational exploitation and utilization of forest resources are not only conducive to sustainable development of population, but also can obtain higher economic benefits. Based on actual timber harvesting problems,a combined harvesting model of timber and non-timber with nonlinear harvesting term was established.Firstly, using the qualitative theory of ordinary differential equations, the dynamic behavior of the model is studied, and the existence and stability of the equilibrium point of the model are proved .Secondly, the optimal control solution is obtained by using the optimal control theory.Finally, the optimal harvesting strategy of timber and non-timber products is given based on the numerical simulation results, which provides a certain theoretical basis for the sustainable development of forestry ecological economy.

Understanding the optimal strategy for a real estate investment and how performance changes based on characteristics is crucial for optimising the achievable return. This is prominent in tourist areas such as Paphos where there is no clear distinction as to whether short or long-term approaches are optimal. The study aimed to develop a model for predicting the optimal rental strategy whilst assessing which model performed best and which property attributes impacted its return the greatest. Short-term data was collected from AirDNA and long-term data was manually collected from real estate agents websites. Furthermore, Random Forest, K-Nearest Neighbour and Multiple Linear Regression models were created to predict the highest and best use for each property. Model accuracy varied between data sets with the best performing model for short-term properties being Random Forest (R-Squared: 0.843), and Distance-Based Multiple Linear Regression for long-term approach (R-Squared: 0.843). The study demonstrated that accurate models could be created to predict the optimal rental strategy with the number of bedrooms being the main driver for rental income, followed by luxury finishes and the presence of a pool. It found that locational characteristics didn’t impact the returns significantly assuming that the property was located within a tourist area.

Annually, the oak forests of the Zagros Mountain chains, in western Iran and northeastern Iraq, face recurring challenges posed by forest fires, particularly in the Kurdo-Zagrosian forests situated in western Iran and northeastern Iraq. Assessing fire susceptibility relies significantly on vegetation condition. Integrating in situ data, Remote Sensing (RS) data, alongside the integration of Geographical Information Systems (GIS), presents a cost-effective and precise approach to capturing environmental conditions before, during, and after fire events, minimizing the need for extensive fieldwork. This study refines and applies the Zagros Grass Index (ZGI), a local vegetation index tailored to discern between grass-covered surfaces from tree canopies in Zagros forests, identifying the grass masses as the most flammable fuel type. Utilizing Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) product as input, from 2013 to 2022, the ZGI aims to mitigate the influence of tree canopies, isolating NDVI values solely attributable to grass cover. By incorporating phenological characteristics of forest trees and grass species, the ZGI outperforms NDVI in mapping grass-covered areas that are crucial for fire susceptibility assessment in the study region. Results demonstrate a strong overlap between ZGI-based maps and recorded fire occurrences, validating the efficacy of the index in fire susceptibility estimation.

Accurate detection of forest restoration sites using deep learning is crucial for effective ecosystem management, optimizing reforestation efforts, and ensuring environmental sustainability. While various deep learning-based systems have been developed for this purpose, the influence of different neural network architectures on model performance during the identification of forest restoration sites remains underexplored. This study aimed to address this gap by exploring the optimal methodology for extracting and classifying candidate sites for forest restoration based on Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), specialized for image recognition. Four categories—arable land, road and barren, quarry, and forest—were defined as candidate sites for forest restoration. A dataset comprising 17,043 samples was divided into training (11,929) and validation (5,114) sets at a ratio of 7:3 for model learning. Model accuracy was evaluated using pixel accuracy (PA) and mean intersection over union (mean IoU). The Resnet152-U-Net model demonstrated a pixel accuracy of 95.2% and a mean IoU of 61.3%, indicating excellent performance in extracting candidate sites for forest restoration. This approach offers spatial and temporal advantages over conventional field surveys or aerial image-based assessments, potentially serving as valuable data for selecting future forest restoration sites.

Quantifying different stocking rates effects in three study areas placed at Mediterranean forest (Cuenca, Spain) was conducted by applying a multiparametric soil quality index, SQI, developed in undisturbed forest soils (> 40 years). The main objective is to advance in the development and application of multiparametric indexes which allow for soil condition assessment. For it, is analyse the effectiveness of a multiparametric soil quality index (SQI) as an indicator livestock impacts on the soil in mediterranean forests. Control areas without stocking rates were compared in forest stands with different age (Thicket forest stand, < 30 years; High polewood forest stand, 30-60 years; Old growth forest stand, > 60 years); with various intensity grazing areas (permanent livestock passage: inactive sheepfold for 2-3 years, and active sheepfold; intermittent livestock passage: bare soil, pine stand, scrubland). The multiparametric soil quality index (SQI) applied sensitive to changes in forest ecosystems depending of different stocking rates. However, for even more preci-sion to assess cattle alteration, multiparameter index recalibrated, creating a new one; Soil Status Index by Livestock (SSIL). Correlation between quality ranges obtained with both indexes in dif-ferent study areas suggest that SSIL can be considered a livestock impact reference indicator in Mediterranean forest soils.

This study aimed to identify changes in visitor behavior and visitor interest in healing forests before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The study used text mining analysis techniques to identify changes in visitation behavior over time, divided into three periods: pre-COVID-19 (January 1 to December 31, 2019), during the COVID-19 pandemic (November 1, 2020 to October 31, 2022), and post-COVID-19 (November 1, 2022 to October 31, 2023 ). After the COVID-19 outbreak, healing forest use behavior did not regress to pre-COVID-19 levels. Activity-based keywords such as "hiking," "trekking," and "walking" stood out as the main drivers of this change in behavior. Therefore, related authorities must examine the scalability of the functions, services, and programs of healing forests from a general healing space to a space for leisure and tourism. These findings will contribute to the development of future marketing strategies and programs for healing forests.

Since 2015, community forests have been promoted in Togo as an alternative to protected areas degradation and as a means of contributing to forest landscape restoration. The study focuses on the Nakpadjouak Community Forest (NCF) in Tami (Togo, West Africa) which contributes to community forests sustainable management. It aims in (i) mapping forest ecosystems and analysing their dynamic and (ii) characterizing the floristic diversity of the NCF. The ecosystems were mapped and their dynamic evaluated based on Google Earth images of 2014 and 2020. Floristic and forestry inventories were carried out using the transect technique in a sample of 20 plots of 50 m x 20 m. The NCF was made up mainly by wooded/shrub savannahs (95.37%) and croplands/fallow (4.63%) in 2014. These two land use types undergone changes over the 6 years prior to 2020. By 2020, the NCF had 3 land use types: wooded/shrub savannahs (77.59%), open forest/wooded savannahs (22.23%), and croplands/fallows (0.18%). A total of 89 plant species belonging to 70 genera and 28 families were recorded within the NCF. The dominant species are: Hetopogon contortus (L.) P.Beauv. and Combretum collinum Fresen. followed by Pteleopsis suberosa Engl. & Diels, Annona senegalensis Pers. The most common species are: Lannea acida A.Rich. s.l., A. senegalensis, Vitellaria paradoxa C.F.Gaertner subsp. paradoxa, C. collinum and Acacia dudgeonii Craib ex Holland. Due to its small area of just 40 hectares and its diverse plant life, this community forest of Savannahs Region is a significant biodiversity hotspot and warrants conservation efforts.

In recent decades, large-scale forest disturbances such as windthrow and bark beetle infestations have significantly impacted the carbon balance of Earth and forest ecosystems, mainly by altering soil respiration (SR) in addition to decreased gross primary productivity. SR is considered the second highest flux on Earth, emitting 78-98 Gt C yr-1 to the atmosphere, thus contributing to global warming. Post-disturbance development is marked by changes in the size of SR. To investigate the impact of bark beetle (Ips typographus) infestations in mountain spruce forests on SR, we measured SR at infested sites by bark beetles and adjacent undisturbed stands in the High Tatra Mountains (Slovakia). The measurements were conducted during the vegetation period (May-September) in 2016 and 2017, five to six years after the initial attack by bark beetles, at an altitudinal gradient (1100-1400 m a.s.l.). SR varied throughout different months and altitudes, and we observed that SR at infested sites reached higher values (in most cases) than at uninfested stands. Average monthly and altitude SR rates during both vegetation periods showed higher values at infested sites, but not all of them were statistically significant. We observed an insignificant change in SR rate between 2016 and 2017 at both infested and uninfested sites. The highest rates of SR were observed in 2016 from July to August at both infested and undisturbed sites. On the other hand, in 2017 the highest SR rates were observed in June and July at undisturbed sites and from June to August at infested sites. However, yearly SR from May-September at infested sites showed significantly higher rates than uninfested ones in both years. SR showed a decreasing pattern with elevation gain in 2016 at infested sites. However, this pattern was not observed in 2017. Based on our observation and results we postulate that SR rates at infested sites are boosted by needle fall and debris from dead and dying trees, which increases heterotrophic SR and compensates the decrease of autotrophic SR from tree roots. This study provides important insights into the impact of bark beetle infestations on SR and highlights the need for further research on the long-term effects of forest disturbances on carbon cycling.

Landscape configuration and forest structure assume an increasing importance as determinants of animal communities. This paper focused on nocturnal lepidoptera inhabiting alder patches in the Sila National Park, Italy. According to their shape, patches were divided into linear and compact ones to disentangle the role of forest structure and landscape configuration in determining the composition of nocturnal lepidopteran communities at different observation scales. We used the Mann-Whitney test for medians to Shannon diversity, Equitability, Fisher’s alpha, and nestedness to test differences among moth communities. We found that compact patches inhabit richer and more abundant communities. The abundance-based Correspondence Analysis showed moth communities clustered according to woodlot shape, except a compact woodlot having a linear-like moth community because entirely surrounded by grasslands. Percentage of forested area and abundance and composition of communities are positively correlated at 50 and 200 m buffers, while correlations are absent at smaller and larger buffers. Our results demonstrated that a width of 50 m may not be sufficient to give proper functionality to the wooded area, at least for moths. As consequence, planning of forest restorations should consider the importance to increase structural habitat continuity at larger scales.

With growing global concern of food and water insecurity, an efficient method to monitor irrigation projects is essential, especially in the developing world, where irrigation performance is often suboptimal. In Nepal, the irrigated area has not been objectively recorded, although their assessment has substantial implications on national policy, project’s annual budgets, and donor fund-ing. Here we present the application of Landsat images to measure irrigated areas in Nepal for the past 17 years to contribute to the assessment of the irrigation performance. Landsat 5 TM (2006-2011) and Landsat 8 OLI (2013-2022) images were used to develop a machine-learning model which classifies irrigated and non-irrigated areas in study areas. The random forest classification achieved overall accuracy of 82.2% and kappa statistics of 0.72. For the class of irrigation areas, the producer’s accuracy and the consumer’s accuracy were 79% and 96%, respectively. Our regionally trained machine-learning model outperforms the existing global cropland map, highlighting the need of such models for local irrigation project evaluations. We assess irrigation project performance and its drivers by combining long-term changes in satellite-derived irrigated area with local data related to irrigation performance, such as annual budget, irrigation service fee, crop yield, precipitation, and main canal discharge.

Stand biomass in boreal forests has attained recognition for its crucial role in carbon cycling. In this study, we examined the effect of stand age on above- and belowground biomass allocation in downy birch (Betula pubescens Ehrh.) in three drained peatland sites in Central Finland. We used allometric equations to estimate individual-tree above-ground biomass and its various components, including stem wood, stem bark, living branches, leaves, and dead branches. The above-ground biomass ranged from 10.5 t ha-1 to 276.0 t ha-1 and foliage biomass from 0.009 t ha-1 to 0.6 t ha-1. We found that stand age had a strong correlation with above-ground biomass, but foliage biomass appeared to peak at the middle-aged (50 years) stand compared to the young (10 years) or mature (80 years) stands. We observed coarse root biomass production of 45, 250, and 110 g m-2 in the 0–50 cm peat layer for young, middle-aged, and mature stands, respectively. Most coarse root biomass occurred in the top 20-cm layer (77%). These findings improve our understanding of how biomass allocation patterns – specifically those in foliar biomass– change over time, and the impact on litter inputs into the soil.

Weeds can have both positive and negative effects on agricultural environments. However, despite the growing interest in the ecology of weed communities in agricultural areas, few studies have been carried out in the northern region of the Andes of Colombia, where urban and agricultural expansion have gen-erated highly disturbed scenarios. The aim of this study is to analyze the diversity of vegetation and weed seed banks in three agricultural production systems and a forest ecosystem in the northern Andes of Colombia. Hill numbers were used to compare diversity, Beta diversity to assess changes in composition, and range-abundance-dominance curves at different sites. Likewise, indicator species were analyzed to find species associations to each system. The results revealed differences in the composition of weeds between the forest ecosystem and the agricultural production systems, with higher equitability in the forest ecosystem and higher dominance in agricultural systems. A higher differentiation was observed in the dominant species of each agricultural system, highlighting those considered pests due to their life history traits, giving them greater success against various anthropogenic selection pressures. These findings highlight the impact of anthropogenic disturbances on the ecological dynamics of weed com-munities in different ecosystems, which should be considered when planning integrated weed manage-ment techniques.

This article presents a comparative analysis of three Machine Learning models, namely Logistic Regression, Decision Tree Classifier, and Random Forest Classifier, for prostate cancer detection. The models were trained and evaluated using clinical data, and their performance was assessed using various evaluation metrics. The results show that Logistic Regression achieved the highest accuracy (90%) among the three models, followed by Random Forest Classifier (76.67%) and Decision Tree Classifier (73.33%). Similarly, Logistic Regression demonstrated superior precision (95.65%) and F1 Score (93.62%), indicating its effectiveness in identifying true positive cases. However, the Decision Tree Classifier exhibited higher recall for the negative class (83.33%) compared to the positive class (70.83%), while Random Forest Classifier showed balanced recall for both classes (66.67% for negative and 79.17% for positive). These findings suggest that Logistic Regression outperforms the other models in terms of accuracy and precision, while the Decision Tree Classifier and Random Forest Classifier provide better recall for certain classes. The results highlight the potential of Machine Learning in prostate cancer detection and provide insights for further research and improvement of the models.

Land Surface Temperature (LST) is significant for climatological and environmental studies. LST products from satellites, however, suffer from the tradeoff between spatial and temporal resolution. Spatial downscaling has emerged as a well explored field aiming to overcome limitations arising from this tradeoff. Previous research on regression based LST downscaling models focused on utilizing predictors derived from optical imagery. Weather-dependency of optical imagery data, however, can influence downscaling models by the weather conditions. To cope this issue, in this study, we involve predictors derived from the weather-independent Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery to downscale Landsat-8 LST data. In this context, we propose to use machine learning techniques, namely Random Forest (RF) and Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN). To demonstrate the applicability and performance of the proposed method, extensive experimental analyses were conducted over Zuid-Holland in the Netherlands. From the experiments, we found that the results obtained with radar predictors were comparable to those achieved using optical predictors. This confirms that the proposed method indeed paves a new way for mapping land surface temperature using SAR images.

Lodging is a common problem in maize production that seriously impacts yield, quality, and the capacity for mechanical harvesting. Evaluation of site-specific lodging risks requires establishment of a method for multi-year monitoring. In this study, spectral images collected by the Sentinel-2 satellite were processed to obtain three types of data: gray-level co-occurrence matrix texture (GLCM), vegetation indices (VIs), and spectral reflectance (SR). Lodging classification models were then established with Random Forest (RF) using each of the three data types separately (the GLCM, VI, and SR models) and in combination (SR+VI model, SR+GLCM model, VI+GLCM mod-el, and SR+VI+GLCM model). By gradually removing features with low importance scores from the SR+VI+GLCM model and analyzing the changes in the overall accuracy (OA), the optimal set of predictive variables was identified and used to construct the optimal model. A model built us-ing data from a single timepoint in 2021 was tested on data collected at a similar timepoint in 2019 and vice versa to assess interannual model generalizability. The results of this study demon-strate that for monitoring maize lodging, models constructed with a single feature type, the GLCM model had significantly lower accuracy compared to the VI and SR models. During certain growth stages, the model constructed with combined features had significantly higher accuracy in monitoring maize lodging compared to models constructed with a single feature. During the pro-cess of selecting the optimal predictive variables, it was found that the accuracy of the model did not increase as the number of predictive variables increased. The results show that the positive and negative validation models had an accuracy of 96.55% and 95.18%, with kappa values of 0.93 and 0.83, respectively. This indicates that the model has strong generality for the same repro-ductive stage between years. This study provides a detailed method for large-scale maize lodging monitoring, allowing for identification of optimal planting practices to reduce the probability of lodging and ultimately improving regional maize yield and quality.

Plant roots have significant effects on the soil erosion rates, since they can strongly change the soil detachment capacity (Dc). This study quantifies Dc at different flow rates in soils with Alnus subcordata species, compared to three other species (Brachythecium plumose, Gleditsia caspica and Sambucus ebulus species) in the Saravan forest park and develops regression equations for predicting Dc. Undisturbed samples collected from soils with the four tree species and subjected to five slopes (from 4.3 to 38.3%) and five water discharges (from 0.28 to 0.71 l m−1 s−1) using a hydraulic flume. The results showed that Dc was significantly lower in soils with Alnus subcordata species compared to Brachythecium plumose, Gleditsia caspica and Sambucus ebulus species, as the consequence of the changes in the root characteristics, so that Dc was negatively correlated with root weight density, root length and root biomass. The unit stream power had high accuracy for predicting Dc for all of the studied species. The lowest value of rill erodibility (Kr) was obtained in soils with Alnus subcordata species using regression relationship between the Dc and the shear stress of the soil. This experiment helped to show the importance of plant roots in reducing the soil detachment rates and provided a contribution in understanding the choice of appropriate species for soil conservation.

Species diversity has been shown to be influenced by environmental factors, but the mechanism underlying their relationship remains unclear across spatial scales. Based on field investigation data collected from 3,077 sample plots in temperate forest ecosystems, we compared tree species richness, evenness and dominance at 10 km × 10 km, 30 km × 30 km and 90 km × 90 km spatial scales. Then, we detected the scale dependence of changes in tree species composition on climate, topography and forest structure using variation partitioning and quantified their contribution to tree diversity with gradient boosted models (GBMs) and fitted their relationships. The magnitude of tree richness, evenness and dominance significantly increased with spatial scale. Ecological factors jointly accounted for 24.3%, 26.5% and 38.5% of the variation in tree species composition at the three spatial scales, respectively. Annual mean temperature had a strong impact on tree richness, evenness and dominance and peaked at an intermediate scale. Tree evenness and dominance increased with the variation of temperature but had upper and lower limits. Tree richness obviously increased with annual precipitation on multiple scales and decreased with annual sunshine duration at large spatial scale. Tree richness, evenness and dominance obviously increased with the variation elevation and diameter at breast height at large scales and small scales, respectively. Tree dominance decreased with tree height in a hump at small scale. The dependence of tree diversity on ecological factors increased with spatial scales. Furthermore, different factors exert various controls on tree diversity at different spatial scales, representing a comprehensive mechanism regulating tree diversity.

Establishment of mixed-forests has gained increasing attention as a way to optimize forest production, to improve ecological benefits and as a safety net for impacts of future climate uncertainties. However, practical knowledge about which species and what proportion of them should be mixed is still lacking. Thus, this study was conducted with the aim of identify suitable species for mixture with Acacia cincinnata. The mixture tested in the present study was A. cincinnata + Eucalyptus robusta (6:4), A. cincinnata + Acacia mangium (3:1) and monospecifc plantation of A. cincinnata established in 2014. After 7 years of growth, we analyzed the effects of species mixture on growth of tree species, understory vegetation and soil physico-chemical properties as well as bacterial community structure and diversity. The results showed that species mixture had no significant effect on growth characteristics, such as diameter and singletree volume of A. cincinnata. However, mixed-species planting increased the total stocking volume compered to monospecific plantation of A. cincinnata. Furthermore, stand mixture significantly increased species diversity, biomass and nutrient stocks in the understory vegetation. The soil of mixed stand of A. cincinnata and A. mangium had the highest C and N contents, whereas the soil of pure A. cincinnata stand had the highest P content. The diversity of soil bacterial community were the highest in the mixed stand of A. cincinnata and E- robusta, followed by pure A. cincinnata stand and A. cincinnata + A. mangium stand. The relative abundance of Proteobacteria and Actinobacteria was higher in soils of mixed stands. Furthermore, the relative abundance of Firmicutes was high in the soil of A. cincinnata + A. mangium while the relative abundance of Verrucomicrobia was high in A. cincinnata + E. robusta stand. As a whole, the study demonstrated that establishing mixed-species plantation enhance the diversity and composition of understory vegetation, soil physico-chemical and soils bacterial community; thereby increasing biodiversity, nutrient cycling and carbon sequestration in the biomass and soil. From the viewpoints of forest productivity and ecological benefits, it is advisable to establish a mixed plantation of A. cincinnata and A- mangium in southern China. As a whole, our work revealed that the sustainability of mixed-species plantation relies on the interactions between soil attributes, vegetation, and bacterial community.

The characteristics of the Sentinel-2 mission with a decametric resolution and frequent acquisitions allow to improve the identification of crops. The majority of the studies on crop classification using RS were targeted at herbaceous and gramineous crop classes while fewer results were obtained on woody crops which present a strong variability in management practices that make their identification difficult. Thus, this study aimed to propose a rapid, accurate, and cost-effective analytical approach for the delineation of fruit orchards (OC), vineyards (VY), and olive groves (OL) in the Mediterranean (Southern France) considering two locations. A classification based on phenology metrics (PM) de-rived from temporal Sentinel-2 time series was developed to perform the classification. The PM were computed by fitting a double logistic model on temporal profiles of vegeta-tion indices to delineate OC, VY, and a DC class gathering all remaining surfaces. The generated PM were introduced in a random forest (RF) algorithm to identify woody crops across the two sites. The method was tested on different vegetation indices, the best results being obtained with the leaf area index (LAI). To delineate OL in the DC class, the tem-poral features of the green chlorophyll vegetation index (GCVI) were found to be the most appropriated with a typical drop of the signal during the mid-season (DOY 150-250). As a final result, we obtained an overall accuracy ranging from 89-96% and Kappa of 0.86-0.95 by considering each study site and year (2016-2021), separately. This accuracy is much better than applying the RF algorithm on the LAI times series, which led to a Kappa rang-ing between 0.3 and 0.52 and demonstrates the interest of using phenological traits rather than the raw time series of the RS data. The method can be well reproduced from one year to another. Moreover, it is possible to apply the classification model of a given year to an-other, keeping good accuracy. This is an interesting feature to reduce the burden of col-lecting ground truth information. On the contrary, the use of a classification model cali-brated in one site and applied to another led to a strong degradation of the classification accuracy. Woody crop phenology is dependent on site climatic conditions as well as the cultivar and management practices that can differ from one site to another.

Payments for Ecosystem Services are a voluntary market-based instrument to remunerate provider(s) of ecosystem services by those who benefit from them. Our research aimed to create an ex-post evaluation framework to identify bottlenecks and elements hindering the success of a solution-driven PES scheme. The framework was applied to a case study to test its feasibility and concerns the provision of health and recreational services in the Medvednica Nature Park (Zagreb, Croatia). The framework was set up through three main sources: the study of PES implementation project documentation, semi-structured interviews with visitors and key stakeholders and web-scraping of TripAdvisor reviews of the park. The main findings confirmed society's interest in the park, but the lack of mapping, quantification, economic valuation and accounting of the services analysed, society's little or no demand to pay for their provision and confused knowledge of the property rights of some ecosystem service providers in the area limit the success of the PES scheme. The framework was useful to describe the chosen PES scheme and to identify bottlenecks and fragilities of the system in place, allowing to correct its application flaws and, on the other hand, to demonstrate its replicability in other contexts.

With climate change projected to increase the frequency and severity of episodic insect outbreak events, assessing potential consequences for soil microbial communities and nutrient dynamics is of importance for understanding forest resilience. The forest tent caterpillar (Malacosoma disstria) is an important defoliator of deciduous tree species in temperate and mixed forests of eastern North America with an invasion cycle every 10-12 years and outbreak events that can last 3-6 years. Following a defoliation episode on trembling aspen (Populus tremuloides) from 2015 to 2017 in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, QC, Canada, we sought to test if defoliation resulted in changes to soil bacterial and fungal communities. We hypothesized an increase in soil microbial biomass due to increased caterpillar frass inputs and potential changes in community structure following the event. Soils were sampled in July 2018, May 2019 and July 2019 from sites that had been subject to defoliation during the outbreak and from sites where no defoliation had been recorded. We assessed soil microbial biomass and fungal to total microbial activity ratio on all sampling dates, and Community Level Physiological Profiles (CLPPs) for 2018 only using a substrate induced respiration method. Contrary to our hypothesis, we observed a significant 50% decrease in microbial biomass (g biomass-C g-1 soil hour-1) in defoliated stands suggesting tree carbon normally allocated towards root exudates was reallocated towards foliage regeneration. We noted a differentiated carbon-based substrate usage following defoliation, but no change in the fungal to total microbial activity ratio. The observed changes in the two years following the defoliation event suggest that defoliation episodes aboveground could trigger changes in soil chemistry belowground with effects on soil microbial communities that may, in turn, feedback to influence forest plant dynamics.

This study aimed to investigate the possibility of using one-shot hyperspectral airborne images to recognize crops for an area with many small plots. The results showed that unsupervised clustering methods could classify crops with an accuracy of 80%, which improved to 90% when restricted to only grain crops, using a single airborne hyperspectral recording. However, additional layers such as NDVI, DTM, slope, and aspect did not improve classification accuracy. For comparison, the accuracy of clustering time series Sentinel-2 images with NDVI layers and DTM-derived data yielded an accuracy of: 74% ,Sentinel-2 time series 68% and single one registration before harvest - 39%. The results of the random forest classification were slightly less accurate due to a lack of sufficient reference data. However, it is challenging to verify the reported accuracy of crop recognition in the literature above 90% due to differences in analysis methodologies, reference data selection, pixel/object approaches, metric choice, and calculation formulas used.

Observing cultivated crops and other forms of land use is an important environmental and economic concern for agricultural land management and crop classification. Crop categorization offers significant crop management data, ensuring food security, and developing agricultural policies. Remote sensing data, especially publicly available Sentinel 1 and 2 data, has effectively been used in crop mapping and classification in cloudy places because of their high spatial and temporal resolution. This study aimed to improve crop type classification by combining Sentinel-1 (Synthetic Aperture Rader (SAR)) data and the Sentinel-2 Multispectral Instrument (MSI) data. In the study, Random Forest (RF) and Classification and Regression Trees (CART) classier were used to classify grain crops (Barley and Wheat). The classification results based on the combination of Sentinel-2 and Sentinel-1 data indicated an overall accuracy (OA) of 93 % and a kappa coefficient (K) of 0.896 for RF and (89.15%, 0.84) for the CART classifier. It is suggested to employ a mix of radar and optical data to attain the highest level of classification accuracy since doing so improves the likelihood that the details will be observed in comparison to the single-sensor classification technique and yields more accurate results.

Despite the abundance of tree diversity in the natural world, and generally high tree species richness in urban areas, urban forests continue to be dominated by a limited number of species. As socio-ecological systems, urban forests are shaped by historical and current management efforts and decision-making of a wide range of human actors. Drawing on past research, we offer a conceptual framework for describing the complex interactions among tree producers and consumers as trees are selected, grown, specified, and planted in private and public urban areas. We illustrate how multiple layers of selection criteria filter down the entirety of potential local tree diversity to a handful of commonly used and accepted tree species. We detail the actors and decision makers who impact tree composition and diversity across several land types. Finally, we identify research, education and outreach needs as they relate to creating more diverse and resilient urban forest ecosystems.

Photovoltaic power generation has high variability and uncertainty because it is affected by uncertain factors such as weather conditions. Therefore, probabilistic forecasting is useful for optimal operation and risk hedging in power systems with large amounts of photovoltaic power generation. However, deterministic forecasting is the mainstay of photovoltaic generation forecasting; there are few studies on probabilistic forecasting and feature selection from weather or time-oriented features in such forecasting. In this study, prediction intervals were generated by the lower upper bound estimation using neural networks with two outputs to make probabilistic predictions. The objective was to improve prediction interval coverage probability (PICP), mean prediction interval width (MPIW), and loss, which is the integration of these two metrics, by removing unnecessary features through feature selection. When features with high gain were selected by random forests (RF), in the forecast of 14.7-kW PV systems, loss improved by 1.57 kW, PICP by 0.057, and MPIW by 0.12 kW on average over two weeks compared to the case where all features were used without feature selection. Therefore, the low gain features from RF act as noise in LUBE and reduce the prediction accuracy.

Damage detection based on modal parameter changes becomes popular in the last decades. Nowadays are available robust and reliable mathematical relations to predict the natural frequency changes if damage parameters are known. Using these relations, it is possible to create databases containing a large variety of damage scenarios. Damage can be thus assessed by applying an inverse method. The problem is the complexity of the database, especially for structures with more cracks. In this paper, we propose two machine learning methods, namely the random forest (RF) and the artificial neural network (ANN) as search tools. The databases we developed contain damage scenarios for a prismatic cantilever beam with one crack and ideal and non-ideal boundary conditions. The crack assessment is made in two steps. First, a coarse damage location is found from the networks trained for scenarios comprising the whole beam. Afterward, the assessment is made involving a particular network trained for the segment of the beam on which the crack is previously found. Using the two machine learning methods, we succeed to estimate the crack location and severity with high accuracy for both simulation and laboratory experiments. Regarding the location of the crack, which is the main goal of the practitioners, the errors are less than 0.6%. Based on these achievements, we concluded that the damage assessment we propose, in conjunction with the machine learning methods, is robust and reliable.

Human-driven biodiversity destruction are responsible for significant and sustained heritage losses in Africa. In Venda, northern South Africa, biodiversity losses are eroding the existence of sacred places. Such places define the essence of indigenous people’s identity and well-being. We highlight how developments in Venda such as mining and agricultural expansion since apartheid times have destroyed biodiversity in the broader landscape, undermining efforts to reduce hunger and poverty. Thathe forest, Lake Fundudzi and Phiphidi waterfalls are central to Venda mythology and legends, origins and identity and are key towards conserving current biodiversity and heritage losses.

Immersion in forest environments was shown to produce beneficial effects to human health, in particular psychophysical relaxation, so much that this practice is increasingly recognized as a form of integrative medicine. Limited evidence exists about both statistical significance and size of the effects conditioned on personal characteristics, as well as on the main external variables. The primary purpose of this study was to substantiate the very concept of forest therapy by means of the quantification and significance of the psychological effects, stratified by gender, age groups and place of residence. A preliminary qualitative analysis of the main determinants, in particular the method of conducting, the meteorological comfort and the concentration of volatile organic compounds in the forest atmosphere, was afforded. Seven forest therapy sessions were performed in late summer though early fall, resulting in 150 psychological self-assessment questionnaires administered before and after each session. The results were comparable or even better than others reported in the international literature. Moreover, preliminary evidence arose about different functionality towards specific psychological indexes conditioned at least on gender and age groups, as well as meteorological comfort, structured programs and, possibly, volatile organic compounds showed an impact on the outcomes.

Different machine learning models (multiple linear regression, vector support machines, artificial neural networks and random forests) are applied to predict the monthly global irradiation (MGI) from different input variables (latitude, longitude and altitude of meteorological station, month, average temperatures, among others) of different areas of Galicia (Spain). The models were trained, validated and queried using data from three stations, and each best machine model was checked in two independent stations. The results obtained confirmed that the best ML methodology is the ANN model which presents the lowest RMSE value in the validation and querying phases 122.6·10kJ/(m2∙day) and 113.6·10kJ/(m2∙day), respectively, and predict conveniently for independent stations, 201.3·10kJ/(m2∙day) and 209.4·10kJ/(m2∙day), respectively. Given the good results obtained, it is convenient to continue with the design of artificial neural networks applied to the analysis of monthly global irradiation.

(1) Background: Most hemodialysis patients may experience physiological and psychological stress. Exposure to nature has been previously reported to reduce the measures of psychological and physiological stress, and immune function. This study aimed to investigate psychological and physiological effects of integrated indirect forest therapy on chronic renal failure patients undergoing hemodialysis. (2) Methods: As a quasi-experiment, this study employed a nonequivalent control group, repeated measurements, and a non-synchronized design. A total of 54 participants were included: 26 and 28 in the experimental and control groups, respectively. During hemodialysis, five types of forest therapy stimuli (visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile, and motor) were applied 3 times per week for 4 weeks during 15-minute sessions. (3) Results: Positive but not negative emotion measures differed between the groups after the intervention. Fatigue and physiological stress levels were significantly reduced in the experimental group, whereas no significant difference was found between the groups on the measures of psychological stress. Activation of both the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems was similar in both groups, as was the number of natural killer cells. (4) Conclusion: Integrated indirect forest therapy may help increase positive emotions and reduce fatigue and stress levels during hemodialysis in patients with chronic renal failure.

ClinVar is a web platform that stores around 774k curated entries, which allows exploring genetic variants and their associations with complex phenotypes. A partial set of ClinVar’s genetic associations were reported with conflict of interpretation or uncertain clinical impact significance, which currently challenges clinicians and geneticists. Here, we evaluate the performance of data pre-processing methods combined with classical prediction methods, such as Naive Bayes, Random Forest, and Support Vector Machine to build a meta-prediction model aiming to improve genetic pathogenicity interpretation. Models were trained with ClinVar data (September 2020), and genetic variants were annotated with eight functional impact predictors catalogued with SnpEff/SnpSift (v4.3). A 10-fold cross-validation strategy was performed for evaluation by accuracy, F1-Score, Receiver Operating Characteristic, Area Under Curve. The best meta-prediction model raises by combining one-hot encoding with tree-based classifiers as Random Forest, which shows Area Under Curve ≥ 0,93. We predict pathogenicity for 109k genetic variants, which were found labeled as uncertain significance or conflict of interpretation. Additionally, we implemented AmazonForest (https://www.lghm.ufpa.br/amazonforest), a web tool to query data for a set of 5k variants that were predicted with high pathogenic probability (RFprob >= 0.9).

Wildfire is the main disturbance in forested ecosystems of southern Europe and is due to complex interactions between climate-weather, fuels and people. Warmer and drier conditions projected in this region are expected to profoundly affect wildfires, which will impact ecosystems and humans. We review the scientific literature addressing the assessment of climate change impacts on wildfires in southern Europe, with a twofold objective: (i) report the trends in wildfire danger and activity projected under warming climate in southern Europe and (ii) discuss the limitations of wildfire projections under the specific biogeographical context of southern Europe.We identified 22 projection studies that examined future wildfire danger or wildfire activity at local, regional or continental scale. Under the scenario with the highest greenhouse gas emissions, we found that projections studies estimate an increase in future fire danger and burnt areas varying, on average, from 2 to 4 % and from 15 to 25 % per decade, respectively. Fire-prone area expansion to the north and to Mediterranean mountains is a concern, while climate-induced burnt area increase might be limited by fuel availability in the most arid areas. While all studies agreed on the direction of changes, further comparisons on the magnitude of increase remained challenging because of heterogeneous methodological choices between projections studies (climate models, projection period, spatial scale and fire metrics). We then described three main sources of uncertainty that may affect the reliability of wildfire projections: climate projections, climate-fire models, and the influences of fuel load/structure and human related factors on the climate-fire relationships. We finally suggest research directions to address some of these issues for the purpose of refining fire danger and fire activity projections in southern Europe.

The research objectives was to determine the plants vegetation profile in forest revegetation and Mount Arjuna springs. The method used was descriptive method. While based on the techniques and tools used to research, the author uses the survey method to obtain facts that occur in the research area, namely in the area around the springs of Arjuna mount, Pasuruan, East Java, Indonesia. Data obtained in the field are then processed and analyzed using GIS, ArcView 3.3 and Google Earth programs. The results of the study explain the profile of plant vegetation, namely plant stratification, bird wealth, taxonomic wealth and plant density have a significant effect on forest revegetation and springs in Arjuna mount. The forest vegetation profile has a positive and significant effect on the preservation of springs. The better the profile of forest vegetation, the preservation of springs will be better, and vice versa.