New Publication: TreeCompR: Tree competition indices for inventory data and 3D point clouds

New Publication: TreeCompR: Tree competition indices for inventory data and 3D point clouds

October 23, 2024

One of our staff members of the Earth Observation Research Cluster (EORC), Julia Rieder, in cooperation with colleagues from TU Dresden, University of Göttingen and HSWT, just published a paper titled “TreeCompR: Tree competition indices for inventory data and 3D point clouds” in Methods in Ecology and Evolution.

From the abstract:

  1. In times of more frequent global change-type droughts and associated tree mortality events, competition release is one silvicultural measure discussed to have an impact on the resilience of managed forest stands. Understanding how trees compete with each other is therefore crucial, but different measurement options and competition indices (CI) leave users with a difficult choice, as no single competition index has proven universally superior.
  2. To help users with the choice and computation of appropriate indices, we present the open-source TreeCompR package, which handles 3D point clouds and classical forest inventory data, enabling the calculation of both innovative point cloud-based indices and traditional distance-dependent indices. It serves as a centralized platform for exploring and comparing different CIs, allowing users to test and select the most suitable CI for their specific research questions within a common interface.
  3. To evaluate the package, we used TreeCompR to quantify the competition situation of 307 European beech trees from 13 sites in Central Europe. Based on this dataset, we discuss the interpretation, comparability and sensitivity of the different indices to their parameterization and identify possible sources of uncertainty and ways to minimize them.
  4. The compatibility of TreeCompR with different data formats and different data collection methods makes it accessible and useful for a wide range of users, specifically ecologists and foresters. Due to the flexibility in the choice of input formats as well as the emphasis on tidy, well-structured output, our package can easily be integrated into existing data-analysis workflows both for 3D point cloud and classical forest inventory data.

Read the full text: https://doi.org/10.1111/2041-210X.14414

Try out the R package: https://juliarieder.github.io/TreeCompR/

 

 

 

you may also like:

Meeting with majors and local stakeholders within EO4CAM project

Meeting with majors and local stakeholders within EO4CAM project

On Wednesday, 30 October, a delegation from the EO4CAM project (comprising three members of the EORC and one from the ZKI, DLR) visited the small town of Markt Burgheim in Bavaria. They joined a meeting of local authorities and other stakeholders to discuss strategies...

social bouldering event

social bouldering event

Last Friday did we organize again a social event for all staff members and EAGLEs to get to know the new students, meet and chat with old students and just have a nice time outside the office for all staff members. We spend 4 hours together in the Rock In boulder gym...

snow cover conditions at Zugspitze with UAS sensors

snow cover conditions at Zugspitze with UAS sensors

Our UAS team travelled to Umweltforschungsstation Schneefernerhaus at Zugspitze to continue the time-series analysis for landscape analysis using drones. At an average elevation of 2500 meters, the team, Luisa Pflumm, Baturalp Arisoy, Konstantin Müller and Basil...

Guest lecture at KonGeoS conference

Guest lecture at KonGeoS conference

The KonGeoS conference (24-27.10.2024 in Würzburg) of geodesy student councils in Germany, Switzerland and Austria invited our Professor Hannes Taubenböck to give a guest lecture. On 25 October 2024, he gave a lecture on settlement development in Germany and discussed...

OPTIPLAN – Driving Innovation in Traffic and Urban Planning

OPTIPLAN – Driving Innovation in Traffic and Urban Planning

Driving Innovation in Traffic and Urban Planning: Insights from OPTIPLAN On October 24, 2024, the OPTIPLAN research consortium (German Aerospace Center (DLR)/University of Würzburg, Ingenieurbüro Behringer & Partner, and OBERMEYER GmbH) gathered to advance...