Search results for "Trees"
showing 10 items of 312 documents
Efficient Multi-scale Patch-Based Segmentation
2015
The objective of this paper is to devise an efficient and accurate patch-based method for image segmentation. The method presented in this paper builds on the work of Wu et al. [14] with the introduction of a compact multi-scale feature representation and heuristics to speed up the process. A smaller patch representation along with hierarchical pruning allowed the inclusion of more prior knowledge, resulting in a more accurate segmentation. We also propose an intuitive way of optimizing the search strategy to find similar voxel, making the method computationally efficient. An additional approach at improving the speed was explored with the integration of our method with Optimised PatchMatch…
Applying a framework for landscape planning under climate change for the conservation of biodiversity in the Finnish boreal forest
2015
Conservation strategies are often established without consideration of the impact of climate change. However, this impact is expected to threaten species and ecosystem persistence and to have dramatic effects towards the end of the 21st century. Landscape suitability for species under climate change is determined by several interacting factors including dispersal and human land use. Designing effective conservation strategies at regional scales to improve landscape suitability requires measuring the vulnerabilities of specific regions to climate change and determining their conservation capacities. Although methods for defining vulnerability categories are available, methods for doing this …
Burning of Logged Sites to Protect Beetles in Managed Boreal Forests
2007
: Natural disturbance–based management and conservation strategies are needed to protect forest biodiversity. Boreal forests of northern Europe are typically clearcut and otherwise intensively managed for timber production. As a result, natural disturbances such as forest fires have became rare and the volume of dead wood has decreased. These changes have had a profound negative effect on species that depend on dead wood (saproxylic). Therefore, it is important to determine whether modifications of forest management methods can enhance the survival of these species. In our study area in southern Finland, we determined whether burning of logged sites and leaving trees (i.e., retention trees)…
The role of power line rights-of-way as an alternative habitat for declined mire butterflies
2011
Habitat loss is one of the greatest threats for biodiversity. In Finland, two thirds of natural mires have been drained for silviculture, which transforms open wetlands into dense forests. However, vegetation management of power line rights-of-way (ROW) maintain the drained mires as open areas. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of the power line ROW vegetation management on butterfly abundance, species richness and community structure by comparing the managed power line ROWs to unmanaged drained control sites and to natural mires. The species richness or abundance of mire butterflies did not differ between the power line ROWs and natural mires. In contrast, both species rich…
Buffer strips can pre-empt extinction debt in boreal streamside habitats
2013
Background Conservation of biological diversity and economical utilization of natural resources form an almost inevitable confrontation between the two. In practice, however, a balance between the two ought to be found, and in managed boreal forests, preservation of woodland key habitats is increasingly used strategy to safeguard biological diversity. According to the Finnish Forests Act, certain Forest Act habitat (FAH) types must be safeguarded, provided they are clearly distinguishable from their surroundings. Furthermore, once the habitat has been identified as a FAH, its special characteristics must not be altered. Both of these aspects contain ambiguities that potentially undermine th…
Using change trajectories to study the impacts of multi-annual habitat loss on fledgling production in an old forest specialist bird
2017
The loss and subdivision of habitat into smaller and more spatially isolated units due to human actions has been shown to adversely affect species worldwide. We examined how changes in old forest cover during eight years were associated with the cumulative number of fledged offspring at the end of study period in Eurasian treecreepers (Certhia familiaris) in Central Finland. We were specifically interested in whether the initial level of old forest cover moderated this relation. We applied a flexible and powerful approach, latent growth curve modelling in a structural equation modeling (SEM) framework, to create trajectories describing changes in old forest cover through time, and studied h…
Ecological Efficiency of Voluntary Conservation of Boreal-Forest Biodiversity
2008
Current networks of protected areas are biased in many countries toward landscapes of low productivity. Voluntary conservation incentives have been suggested as a socially acceptable way to supplement existing networks with more productive, privately owned areas of high priority for nature conservation. The limited resources committed to nature conservation demand cost-efficiency. Efficiency, however, depends not only on costs incurred to society from alternative ways of maintaining biodiversity but also on ecological values that can be captured. We examined the ecological efficiency of the new market-based voluntary program to preserve forest habitats on private land in southwestern Finlan…
Interventi di conservazione degli alberi monumentali in Sicilia
2009
Gli alberi monumentali, elementi fra i più appariscenti del mondo vegetale, possono essere considerati beni unici ed irripetibili. Essi rappresentano un peculiare aspetto della biodiversità che deve essere tutelato e valorizzato alla stessa stregua dei monumenti in pietra, dei centri storici, delle grandi strutture architettoniche (Schicchi & Raimondo, 1999). Negli ultimi anni in Sicilia, come in altre regioni italiane, le iniziative volte alla conoscenza di questo particolare patrimonio culturale si sono intensificate, grazie alla sensibilità di diversi enti territoriali (comuni, province, regioni, parchi naturali). Per questa stessa regione, Schicchi & Raimondo (2005, 2006, 2007) e Schicc…
State and parameter update in a coupled energy/hydrologic balance model using ensemble Kalman filtering
2012
Summary The capability to accurately monitor and describe daily evapotranspiration (ET) in a cost effective manner is generally attributed to hydrological models. However, continuous solution of energy and water balance provides precise estimations only when a detailed knowledge of sub-surface characteristics is available. On the other hand, residual surface energy balance models, based on remote observation of land surface temperature, are characterised by sufficient accuracy, but their applicability is limited by the lack of high frequency and high resolution thermal data. A compromise between these two methodologies is represented by the use of data assimilation scheme to include sparse …
Responses of microbial activity and decomposer organisms to contamination in microcosms containing coniferous forest soil.
2002
Soil respiration from microcosms contaminated with pentachlorophenol, 2-ethanolhexanoate, creosote, CuSO4, and benomyl was measured in order to evaluate usefulness of soil microcosms and microbial respiration rate monitoring as a toxicity test in soils with high organic matter content. Coniferous forest soil and its organisms were used as test objects. In addition, how a short-term low temperature period including frost affects respiration dynamics in stressed soils was studied, i.e., whether contaminants reduce resistance of the community to other (also natural) stresses. In addition, at the end of the experiment, effects of contaminants on faunal and microbial community structures were an…