Article
Plant Sciences
Jens van der Zee, Alvaro Lau, Alexander Shenkin
Summary: This study quantified the characteristic of crown surface complementarity in trees displaying crown shyness using LiDAR-derived tree point clouds. The research found that trees with overlapping crowns scored lower in surface complementarity values compared to non-overlapping pairs, and the average slenderness of tree pairs correlated positively with their surface complementarity score. The 3-D metric developed in this study revealed how trees adapt the shape of their crowns to those of adjacent trees and how this is linked to the slenderness of the trees.
Article
Agricultural Engineering
Ran Liu, Jian Liu, Huiying Liu, Xinting Yang, Jose Fernando Bienvenido Barcena, Ming Li
Summary: A computational fluid dynamics model was used to study the spatial and temporal distribution of leaf wetness duration in a single-slope Chinese solar greenhouse. The model inputs were simplified to five parameters, and simulations showed the initial condensation always appeared on the roof before the leaves. The evaluation of the model showed high accuracy and can be used as a reference for an early warning disease model based on leaf condensation.
BIOSYSTEMS ENGINEERING
(2021)
Article
Agronomy
Wenyan Ge, Xiuxia Li, Linhai Jing, Jianqiao Han, Fei Wang
Summary: Investigation of deciduous forest phenology is significant for understanding temperate deciduous forest eco-systems. Fine-scale perspectives on vegetation phenology have recently been carried out with the development of near-surface sensors, particularly uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAV). However, the capability of UAV-derived indices for canopy-scale phenology monitoring remains under-studied.
AGRICULTURAL AND FOREST METEOROLOGY
(2023)
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Ruibin Li, Fanxing Zeng, Yi Zhao, Yan Wu, Jianlei Niu, Liangzhu (Leon) Wang, Naiping Gao, Haizhu Zhou, Xing Shi, Zishuo Huang
Summary: Trees are effective in regulating microclimate. This paper proposes a new tree-scale canopy energy balance model to calculate leaf surface temperature and analyze the influence of various factors on temperature and energy balance. Results show that air temperature and solar radiation have a greater effect on temperature, while solar radiation has a minimal influence on energy balance.
SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND SOCIETY
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Fangyuan Yu, Tawanda W. Gara, Juyu Lian, Wanhui Ye, Jian Shen, Tiejun Wang, Zhifeng Wu, Junjie Wang
Summary: The study found significant differences in leaf traits along vertical canopy profiles of tall trees, with light-demanding and shade-tolerant species showing contrasting leaf spectral patterns across different canopy layers. Leaf spectra at lower and upper canopy layers were more sensitive in tracking changes in leaf chlorophyll and flavonoid content.
Article
Forestry
Congrong Li, Jinling Song, Jindi Wang
Summary: The semi-variance model and GOMS model can accurately calculate tree heights at the regional scale. Inaccuracies in tree height derived from CHM data and unmatched spatial resolution among different datasets may affect the accuracy of tree height, but the error caused by unmatched spatial resolution is relatively small in dense forests.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Zander S. Venter, Charlie Shackleton, Andrew Faull, Lizette Lancaster, Gregory Breetzke, Ian Edelstein
Summary: Assumptions about the link between green space and crime mitigation are mainly based on literature from the Global North, with little research conducted in the Global South. This study utilized 10 years of crime statistics from South Africa, a global crime hotspot, and found that an increase in green space is associated with a decrease in violent and property crimes, but has no effect on sexual crimes. However, the association changes when considering the characteristics of green space, such as tree cover and park accessibility. Further research is needed to better understand the causal mechanisms behind the crime-green space associations, especially considering the potential influence of race and income inequality. Nevertheless, the results highlight the importance of considering nuanced definitions of green space when studying its links to crime. In light of the broader ecosystem services provided by green space, this study supports urban greening as a major strategy for achieving just and sustainable cities and towns.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2022)
Article
Forestry
Peter Biber, Hans Pretzsch
Summary: This study used long-term experimental data from mixed mountain forests in Southern Germany and found that tree growth near canopy gaps was influenced, with growth rates exceeding the range covered by the classic spatial competition index. The study also revealed that the effects of gap exposure on tree growth lasted for a longer period of time.
FOREST ECOLOGY AND MANAGEMENT
(2022)
Article
Computer Science, Software Engineering
Federica Cecchetto, Vera Traub, Rico Zenklusen
Summary: The Connectivity Augmentation Problem (CAP) and the Tree Augmentation Problem (TAP) are fundamental Network Design problems. There has been an increase in interest in finding approximation algorithms for both TAP and CAP with guarantees below 2. This paper presents a new matching-based method for the leaf-to-leaf instances of CAP, achieving better approximation results by combining previous techniques. By combining with a stack analysis approach, an improved approximation factor for a nontrivial class of TAP/CAP instances is obtained for the first time.
MATHEMATICAL PROGRAMMING
(2023)
Article
Agronomy
Lu He, Haoran Li, Jianning He, Dongwei Han, Ruiqi Li, Hongguang Wang
Summary: Irrigation timing has a significant effect on the leaf area index and light interception capacity of wheat, with earlier irrigation in spring favoring greater leaf area. However, the effect of irrigation timing on internode length shows maximum results when irrigation occurs at the appearance of the spring-leaf n+2 or n+3. Among the different irrigation treatments, T5 and T6 achieved the highest yield in both years.
FIELD CROPS RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Shuwen Liu, Zhengbing Yan, Zhihui Wang, Shawn Serbin, Marco Visser, Yuan Zeng, Youngryel Ryu, Yanjun Su, Zhengfei Guo, Guangqin Song, Qianhan Wu, He Zhang, K. H. Cheng, Jinlong Dong, Billy Chi Hang Hau, Ping Zhao, Xi Yang, Lingli Liu, Alistair Rogers, Jin Wu
Summary: Accurate understanding of the variability in foliar physiological traits across landscapes is critical to improve terrestrial biosphere models. Imaging spectroscopy can characterize foliar biochemical and morphological traits at the canopy scale, but limited evidence exists for retrieving canopy photosynthetic capacity. This study collected imaging spectroscopy data from an Unoccupied Aerial System (UAS) platform over two forest sites in China and developed spectral models to estimate key foliar traits at the tree-crown scale. The results demonstrate the potential of UAS-based imaging spectroscopy for characterizing foliar physiological traits and highlight the influence of canopy structure on the spectra-trait relationships.
REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Amanda F. Cerqueira, Larissa Rocha-Santos, Maira Benchimol, Marcelo S. Mielke
Summary: The study found that young plants tend to occur in shaded environments. E. edulis successfully acclimated in six of the nine traits analyzed, with most traits being affected by local and landscape features. The lack of variation in traits related to protection against herbivory may limit the species establishment in highly deforested landscapes.
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Ralf Loritz, Maoya Bassiouni, Anke Hildebrandt, Sibylle K. Hassler, Erwin Zehe
Summary: This study leverages sap flow data to estimate canopy conductance for more accurate hydrological simulations. Integrating canopy conductance inferred from sap flow data leads to more realistic soil moisture estimates than using conventional methods. When sap flow data are not available, a machine learning model can be used to predict sap velocities and estimate canopy conductance. The hybrid model performs equally well as models using observed sap flow data and shows potential for extrapolation.
HYDROLOGY AND EARTH SYSTEM SCIENCES
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Charlotte De Grave, Luca Pipia, Bastian Siegmann, Pablo Morcillo-Pallares, Juan Pablo Rivera-Caicedo, Jose Moreno, Jochem Verrelst
Summary: This paper presents a validation exercise of OLCI vegetation products by comparing the results at different spatial resolutions. CCC provides the most accurate estimates, while LCC shows poor retrieval at the 300 m scale. Introducing a new LCC model with mixed reflectance spectra improved the retrieval accuracy for this variable.
Article
Plant Sciences
Yonghui Pan, Yiwen Cao, Yixiao Chai, Xusheng Meng, Min Wang, Guanjun Wang, Shiwei Guo
Summary: Enhancing the light-saturated photosynthetic rate is critical to advancing crop yield, especially in super hybrid rice. The higher CO2 diffusion capacity, as well as the higher biochemical capacity, favored leaf photosynthesis of super hybrid rice. Additionally, the total canopy nitrogen concentration at the tillering stage also played an important role in determining the photosynthetic rate and yield.
FRONTIERS IN PLANT SCIENCE
(2023)
