ALBERT

Description: Forest roads require important design specifications to ensure all-season access for various vehicles. Long and heavy log trucks can face serious maneuvering problems on forest roads due to insufficient amount of area to the left for road widening on horizontal curves. In order to provide safe and continuous shipment and transportation, appropriate curve widening areas should be provided for long vehicles along horizontal curves. In this study, a statistical model was developed to provide curve-widening solutions for long trucks (e.g., those with 18 wheels) considering various curve radius and deflection angles. The dynamic curve widening feature of Plateia 2013 program was employed to calculate curve widening for the specified vehicle. During the solution process, nine different horizontal curve diameters from 10 to 50 m (by 5 m intervals) and 17 different deflection angles from 90° to 170° (by 5° intervals) were evaluated to run horizontal curve-widening analysis. Using a multiple regression model, we made suitable predictions about curve widening. The curve-widening areas decrease as the horizontal curve radius increases, while increasing the deflection angle on horizontal curves increases curve widening areas. Clearly, the computer-based dynamic curve widening model developed in this study can be effectively used in determining optimum widening for horizontal curves by evaluating the number of alternatives that fit geometrical specifications and vehicle types.

Description: Allometric equations developed for the Lama forest, located in southern Benin, West Africa, were applied to estimate carbon stocks of three vegetation types: undisturbed forest, degraded forest, and fallow. Carbon stock of the undisturbed forest was 2.7 times higher than that in the degraded forest and 3.4 times higher than that in fallow. The structure of the forest suggests that the individual species were generally concentrated in lower diameter classes. Carbon stock was positively correlated to basal area and negatively related to tree density, suggesting that trees in higher diameter classes contributed significantly to the total carbon stock. The study demonstrated that large trees constitute an important component to include in the sampling approach to achieve accurate carbon quantification in forestry. Historical emissions from deforestation that converted more than 30% of the Lama forest into cropland between the years 1946 and 1987 amounted to 260,563.17 tons of carbon per year (t CO 2 /year) for the biomass pool only. The study explained the application of biomass models and ground truth data to estimate reference carbon stock of forests.

Description: Tropical forests play a critical role in mitigating climate change because they account for large amount of terrestrial carbon storage and productivity. However, there are many uncertainties associated with the estimation of carbon dynamics. We estimated forest structure and carbon dynamics along a slope (17.3°–42.8°) and to assess the relations between forest structures, carbon dynamics, and slopes in an intact lowland mixed dipterocarp forest, in Kuala Belalong, Brunei Darussalam. Living biomass, basal area, stand density, crown properties, and tree family composition were measured for forest structure. Growth rate, litter production, and litter decomposition rates were also measured for carbon dynamics. The crown form index and the crown position index were used to assess crown properties, which we categorized into five stages, from very poor to perfect. The living biomass, basal area and stand density were 261.5–940.7 Mg ha −1 , 43.6–63.6 m 2 ha −1 and 6,675–8400 tree ha −1 , respectively. The average crown form and position index were 4, which means that the crown are mostly symmetrical and sufficiently exposed for photosynthesis. The mean biomass growth rate, litter production, litter decomposition rate were estimated as 11.9, 11.6 Mg ha −1  a −1 , and 7.2 g a −1 , respectively. Biomass growth rate was significantly correlated with living biomass, basal area, and crown form. Crown form appeared to strongly influence living biomass, basal area and biomass growth rate in terms of light acquisition. However, basal area, stand density, crown properties, and biomass growth rate did not vary by slope or tree family composition. The results indicate that carbon accumulation by tree growth in an intact lowland mixed dipterocarp forest depends on crown properties. Absence of any effect of tree family composition on carbon accumulation suggests that the main driver of biomass accumulation in old-growth forests of Borneo is not species-specific characteristics of tree species.

Description: A protocol for micropropagation using nodal explants from mature Pinus massoniana trees has been developed. Time of explant collection is crucial for the initial success of aseptic culture. Explants collected in early March gave the highest percentage of explant survival (64.5%) and shoot-forming percentage (52.3%). Thidiazuron (TDZ) concentration significantly influenced shoot formation; 4 μM TDZ was optimum, with 4.8 shoots produced per explant with a mean length of 7.1 cm after 120 days of culture. Regenerated shoots rooted for 60 days in basic medium with 1 μM NAA were ready for growth in pots. This is the first report on plantlet regeneration in vitro from mature trees of P. massoniana that provides a reliable method for propagating selected elites.

Description: Disturbances that create gaps can shape the structure and function of forests. However, such disturbance regimes in Asian tropical montane rainforests remain largely unquantified. Least studied are typhoon disturbances that are attributable to climate change. We investigated gap characteristics in terms of size, age, and gap-maker to quantify the gap disturbance regimes in an intact old-growth tropical montane rainforest on Hainan Island, China. The intensity of typhoons has increased since 1949, and typhoon winds blow mostly (45.5%) from the northeast corner of Hainan Island, resulting in a higher frequency of gaps in the northeast. A total of 221 gap-makers (trees that fell to create canopy gaps) and 53 gaps were observed in a 3.16 ha old-growth rainforest. Most canopy gaps (85%) were 〈200 m 2 . The average size of canopy gaps was smaller in the rainforest than in other tropical forests, while the average size of expanded gaps was similar to those in other tropical forests. The maximum age of gaps was 23.5 years indicating that gaps had more rapid turnover than other parts of tropical forests. The frequency distribution of gap-makers followed a lognormal distribution with a distinctive peak at three gap-makers, which was different from the inverse J-shaped curve typical of other tropical forests. Gaps were recorded mainly on slopes between 20° and 35° and wood density of gap-makers was between 0.6 and 0.7 g cm −3 . Our results suggest that small-scale disturbance was the dominant agent of gap formation in this old-growth rainforest that is subject to increasing typhoon disturbances.

Description: In this study to screen for stable, high Taxol-producing cell lines (CL5, CL12, and CL21) of Taxus cuspidata , stem tissues were used to induce calli, which were then subcultured nine times to establish suspension cell cultures. From 97 cell lines obtained from conditioned cultures, 10 cell lines with high Taxol content were selected. Stability analyses on solid and liquid B5 media were then used to obtain lines that stably produced high levels of Taxol. Fresh biomass and Taxol production of the ninth generation became stable. Taxol content of selected CL5, CL12, and CL21 samples was 0.0448, 0.0477, and 0.0428% of dry mass (DW), respectively. Proliferation of CL5, CL12 and CL21 was 346.3, 382.5, and 409.2%, respectively. From work over about 2 years, the three cell lines appear suitable for mass production of Taxol, promoting the industrialisation and commercial-scale production of Taxol using cell culture.

Description: Fires have a noteworthy role to play with regards to ecological and environmental losses in Mediterranean forests. In addition to ecological impacts, fire may create economic, social as well as cultural changes. The detection of fire-scars has critical importance to help decrease losses. In the present study, forest fires recorded in Antalya, one of the most important ecological and tourist regions within the Western Mediterranean, were clustered and mapped. Since the dominant factors and devastation records derived from the cases had nominal-scaled properties, a categorical data-based nonparametric clustering algorithm was performed in this evaluation. The proposed tool, k-modes algorithm, uses modes instead of means for clustering. The algorithm may be implemented quickly and does not make distributional assumptions concerning the available data. It uses a frequency-based method to update the modes of the fires. The derived modes from the maps may be useful information for local authorities to manage. In conclusion, the proposed nonparametric clustering procedure may be employed to build a decision-support system to monitor and identify fire activities and to enhance fire management efficiency.

Description: The Tibet Shannan Red Deer Nature Reserve is the center of the geographic distribution of Tibetan red deer. This paper presents the results of DNA analysis of 199 red deer fecal pellet groups collected during 2013 and 2014 during the green-plant period. We successfully extracted DNA from 87 DNA pellet groups and determined individual identification with 12 microsatellite loci. We evaluated the genetic diversity of the population and various population estimates with Capwire in R software. The 87 successfully extracted pellet groups were from 50 individuals. In the population, the average number of alleles was 7.58 ± 0.18, the average effective number of alleles was 4.58 ± 0.15, and average polymorphism information content was 0.67 ± 0.01. Among the 12 loci, only T123 was moderately polymorphic; the other 11 loci were highly polymorphic. Expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.45 to 0.91, with an average of 0.72 ± 0.01, and average observed heterozygosity was 0.52 ± 0.11. Although Tibetan red deer remains endangered, the high genetic diversity indicates that this population has a good chance of recovery. This study provided insight that could be used by the local forestry department to develop programs to protect Tibetan red deer.

Description: Volume variation is an uncertainty element which affects timber processing. We studied the volume variation of logs caused by quality defects in traditional timber processing and set up an optimization approach, using a robust optimization method. We used total number of acceptable boards produced to study the relationship between board thickness and raw material logs, using a heuristic search algorithm to control the variation of board volume to improve the output of boards, reduce the quantity of by-products, and lower production costs. The robust optimization method can effectively control the impact of volume variations in timber processing, reduce cutting waste as far as possible using incremental processing and increase profits, maximize the utilization ratio of timber, prevent waste in processing, cultivate the productive type of tree species and save forest resources.