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The recovery of forests following stand-replacing disturbance is of widespread interest; however, there is both a lack of definitional clarity for the term “recovery” and a dearth of empirical data on the rates of forest recovery associated with different disturbance types. We conducted a quantitative review of literature to determine recovery times following wildfire and timber harvest and to evaluate variation in recovery rates across Canada’s diverse forest ecosystems. Recovery was assessed according to the rate of change associated with certain forest structural attributes that have traditionally been used as indicators of forest growth and productivity. The recovery of forest canopy cover, tree height, and...
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Utilizing the spatial information inherent in panchromatic very high spatial resolution (VHSR) imagery, we explored the use of tree crown metrics for identifying leading species over four study sites in the Yukon Territory, Canada. Image segmentation was used to delineate homogeneous forest stands, followed by a tree crown delineation algorithm that identified individual tree crowns within each stand. Leading species in the study area included white spruce, black spruce, lodgepole pine, and trembling aspen. Nonparametric multivariate statistical tests indicated that some tree crown metrics generalized at the stand level have significant utility for discriminating leading species. Based on this result, a classification...
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Forests are an important global resource, playing key roles in both the environment and the economy. The implementation of quality national monitoring programs is required for the generation of robust national statistics, which in turn support global reporting. Conventional monitoring initiatives based on samples of field plots have proven robust but are difficult and costly to implement and maintain, especially for large jurisdictions or where access is difficult. To address this problem, air photo- and satellite-based large area mapping and monitoring programs have been developed; however, these programs also require ground measurements for calibration and validation. To mitigate this need for ground plot data...
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