Dynamic assessment of agro-industrial sector efficiency and productivity changes among G20 nations

In this study, the Group of 20 (G20; excluding EU economies) were selected as the research objects, and the dynamic network slacks-based model (SBM) was used to evaluate the impact of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and forested area on the efficiency and productivity of the industrial and agricultural sectors from 2011 to 2015. Empirical results showed that: (1) The efficiency of the industrial sector was superior to that of the agricultural sector among the G20 countries. Argentina, Australia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkey, the UK, and the US maintained the best industrial sector efficiency values, falling on the efficiency boundary, whereas Argentina, Brazil, Canada, France, Indonesia, South Korea, Russia, and the US had the best agricultural sector efficiency values. (2) Argentina, Indonesia, and the US had the best overall efficiency value of G20 countries. Saudi Arabia (0.0303), China (0.2721), and the UK (0.2809) had the lowest efficiency values. (3) Only France and Germany had higher than average total factor productivity, while Indonesia and Saudi Arabia had declining industrial and agricultural sector productivity. (4) The proportion of forested area (546.02%) was the most important variable to be improved due to the influence of desert topography, followed by the proportion of agricultural output values (60.86%) and the proportion of industrial output values (38.02%) in some countries.

Sanitary and forest health monitoring of forested area in Kaliningrad region

The data on the sanitary and forest health of monitoring of the forested area in the Kaliningrad region are presented. The influence of the main factors on the sanitary and forest health of plantations for the period from 2017 to 2019 is considered, considering forest fires, unfavorable weather and soil-climatic conditions, the foci of pests and diseases, as well as anthropogenic and non-pathogenic factors. Their threat to forest plantations is analyzed. The main reasons for the forest plantations death in the Kaliningrad region are highlighted, they are negative weather and soil-climatic conditions (65 % of the total damaged area) as well as diseases. The study results of the forested areas with the established weakening and dying, the distribution of foci of pests and diseases are presented. The main insect pest, i.e. typographer bark beetle (Ips typographus), has been determined. The absence of insects as forest pests, listed in the Red Data Books of the Russian Federation and the Kaliningrad Region, and classified as quarantine pests, was recorded. The impact of negative factors causing the weakening (drying out) of forest plantations in the Kaliningrad region has been analyzed, it is recommended to conduct forest health monitoring, sanitary and recreational activities, perform reclamation work, strengthen control over the timing and quality of forest protection measures, and sanitary cuttings in particular, by the authority executive power of the subject and its subordinate institutions.

Resilience of the Central Indian Forest Ecosystem to Rainfall Variability in the Context of a Changing Climate

Understanding the spatio-temporal pattern of natural vegetation helps decoding the responses to climate change and interpretation on forest resilience. Satellite remote sensing based data products, by virtue of their synoptic and repetitive coverage, offer to study the correlation and lag effects of rainfall on forest growth in a relatively longer time scale. We selected central India as the study site. It accommodates tropical natural vegetation of varied forest types such as moist and dry deciduous and evergreen and semi-evergreen forests that largely depend on the southwest monsoon. We used the MODIS derived NDVI and CHIRPS based rainfall datasets from 2001 to 2018 in order to analyze NDVI and rainfall trend by using Sen’s slope and standard anomalies. The study observed a decreasing rainfall trend over 41% of the forests, while the rest of the forest area (59%) demonstrated an increase in rainfall. Furthermore, the study estimated drought conditions during 2002, 2004, 2009, 2014 and 2015 for 98.2%, 92.8%, 89.6%, 90.1% and 95.8% of the forest area, respectively; and surplus rainfall during 2003, 2005, 2007, 2011, 2013 and 2016 for 69.5%, 63.9%, 71.97%, 70.35%, 94.79% and 69.86% of the forest area, respectively. Hence, in the extreme dry year (2002), 93% of the forest area showed a negative anomaly, while in the extreme wet year (2013), 89% of forest cover demonstrated a positive anomaly in central India. The long-term vegetation trend analysis revealed that most of the forested area (>80%) has a greening trend in central India. When we considered annual mean NDVI, the greening and browning trends were observed over at 88.65% and 11.35% of the forested area at 250 m resolution and over 93.01% and 6.99% of the area at 5 km resolution. When we considered the peak-growth period mean NDVI, the greening and browning trends were as follows: 81.97% and 18.03% at 250 m and 88.90% and 11.10% at 5 km, respectively. The relative variability in rainfall and vegetation growth at five yearly epochs revealed that the first epoch (2001–2005) was the driest, while the third epoch (2011–2015) was the wettest, corresponding to the lowest vegetation vigour in the first epoch and the highest in the third epoch during the past two decades. The study reaffirms that rainfall is the key climate variable in the tropics regulating the growth of natural vegetation, and the central Indian forests are dominantly resilient to rainfall variation.

SPATIAL 3D DOCUMENTATION OF HISTORICAL MINING REMNANTS IN FORESTED AREA IN THE ERZGEBIRGE/KRUŠNOHOŘÍ MINING REGION UNESCO SITE

This contribution deals in the possibilities of 3D documentation of historical mining relicts hidden in the forest. On the Czech – German border, in the Ore Mountains, several historical mining relicts are located there. There are interesting underground spaces (historical mines), some of which have recently been made available for visits by tourists. But there are many relicts on the surface that are linked to mining and are not known or on the fringes of interest. These are mining pits, dumps, water works, remains of buildings and historic entrance roads. Many of them are in forest areas, were not documented or archaeologically explored, and have recently been devastated by amateur collectors equipped with metal detectors who unfortunately destroy unexplored localities to find interesting relicts. For the basic documentation and delimitation of these objects, aerial laser scanning (ALS) and personal laser mobile scanning (PLS) were used; some finds were documented by close-range photogrammetry.

Climate Connectivity of European Forests for Species Range Shifts

Forest connectivity is important for the range shifts and long-term persistence of forest-dependent species, especially in the context of climate change. This study assessed the climate connectivity of European forests for species to track suitable climate conditions as the climate warms. Here, climate connectivity was calculated as the temperature difference between each forest patch and the coolest patch that can be reached along temperature gradients. We found that, overall, about 36% of the total forested area in Europe has achieved successful climate connectivity under the moderate emission scenario (SSP245), whereby species range shifts could circumvent the impact of climate warming. The percentage is much lower under the highest emission scenario (SSP585), which is only 12%. To identify forest areas of high importance for climate connectivity, we further evaluated the potential of each forest patch to serve as a stepping stone for species range shifts. Our results showed that about 94% of the European forested area is expected to experience species range shifts. Our study identified sites of high conservation value for improving and sustaining forest connectivity to facilitate climate-driven range shifts and thus could provide information for climate-smart management of European forests.

Assessment of the Influence of Survey Design and Processing Choices on the Accuracy of Tree Diameter at Breast Height (DBH) Measurements Using UAV-Based Photogrammetry

This work provides a systematic evaluation of how survey design and computer processing choices (such as the software used or the workflow/parameters chosen) influence unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-based photogrammetry retrieval of tree diameter at breast height (DBH), an important 3D structural parameter in forest inventory and biomass estimation. The study areas were an agricultural field located in the province of Málaga, Spain, where a small group of olive trees was chosen for the UAV surveys, and an open woodland area in the outskirts of Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, where a 10 ha area grove, composed mainly of birch trees, was overflown. A DJI Phantom 4 Pro quadcopter UAV was used for the image acquisition. We applied structure from motion (SfM) to generate 3D point clouds of individual trees, using Agisoft and Pix4D software packages. The estimation of DBH in the point clouds was made using a RANSAC-based circle fitting tool from the TreeLS R package. All trees modeled had their DBH tape-measured on the ground for accuracy assessment. In the first study site, we executed many diversely designed flights, to identify which parameters (flying altitude, camera tilt, and processing method) gave us the most accurate DBH estimations; then, the resulting best settings configuration was used to assess the replicability of the method in the forested area in Bulgaria. The best configuration tested (flight altitudes of about 25 m above tree canopies, camera tilt 60°, forward and side overlaps of 90%, Agisoft ultrahigh processing) resulted in root mean square errors (RMSEs; %) of below 5% of the tree diameters in the first site and below 12.5% in the forested area. We demonstrate that, when carefully designed methodologies are used, SfM can measure the DBH of single trees with very good accuracy, and to our knowledge, the results presented here are the best achieved so far using (above-canopy) UAV-based photogrammetry.

DESKRIPSI SEBARAN JENIS DAN SIFAT FISIKA BAMBU DI KAWASAN HUTAN DENGAN TUJUAN KHUSUS (KHDTK) SENARU

Senaru specific destination forested area is the only educational forested area which is situated in Lombok Island. It has important roles in providing facilities and information supporting knowledge of bamboo characteristics growing naturally in this area. Many studies about the characteristics of bamboo have been done, but none has been conducted for this area. The information about bamboo distribution was important to understand the potency of bamboo of this area and the information about bamboo physical characteristics were used as raw material data for bamboo crafting, furniture, and simple constructions. The aims of this study were at understanding the bamboo distributions and the physical characteristics of bamboo of this area. Samplings were conducted in two phases which the first phase was collecting bamboo species, number of the bamboo clumps and sticks. The second phase was conducted several tests for the physical characteristics of the bamboo collected from the first stage. The results of this testing were described and compared to the existing bamboo quality standards. 6 (six) bamboo species were identified in this forest: yellow bamboo (Bambusa vulgaris var. striata), Petung bamboo (Dendrocalamus asper (Schult. f.) Backer ex Heyne), ampel bamboo (Bambusa vulgaris Schrad. ex J.C), Santong bamboo (Gigantochloa atter (Hassk.) Kurz), Bilis bamboo (Schizostachyum lima (Blanco) Merr) and Tali bamboo (Gigantolochloa apus Kurz). The number of bamboo clump was 160 clumps and 299 individuals. The physical characteristics of the bamboo were: fresh moisture content ranged between 37,93% – 69,49%, air-dried moisture content between 8,84% - 12,10%, fresh density ranged between 0,32 – 1,03, air-dried density ranged between 0,59 – 1,11 and oven-dried density between 0,55 – 1,04.

Agricultural area increases the infection risk of free ranging birds to St. Louis encephalitis and West Nile viruses (Flavivirus)

Anthropogenic changes affect biological communities of host and vectors driving arbovirus activity. In general, urban and agricultural ecosystems harbor less avian and mosquito diversity than native ecosystems and are dominated by few species. Human activities have led to the emergence / re-emergence of different infectious pathogens particularly arboviruses representing a threat to both public health and biodiversity. Saint Louis encephalitis (SLEV) and West Nile viruses (WNV) are transmitted by Culex spp. mosquitoes as main vectors and several bird species as hosts. With the aim to study the exposure of free-ranging bird communities to SLEV and WNV in Pampean agroecosystems as well as to evaluate the environmental/ biological factors potentially associated we collected and bleed free ranging birds in 12 sites. Serum samples were analyzed by Plaque Reduction Neutralization Test (PRNT) for both viruses. Generalized Linear Mixed Models (GLMM) were performed to analyze the association between environmental / biological variables from each sampled site and avian exposition. A total of 1019 birds were sampled during 2017 - 2019. Overall, we found SLEV NTAb in 60 out of 1019 samples (5.8%) while WNV seroprevalence was 2.1% (21/1019). SLEV and WNV seroprevalence were different among the sampled sites. Agricultural area was positively associated with the SLEV-WNV infection risk for an avian host. Forested area also had a strong association but in a negative way. Our results suggest that open agricultural area increase the infection risk of free ranging birds to SLEV and WNV while forested area diminishes the infection risk maybe through a dilution effect of vector and host communities.