A novel procedure to measure shrinkage-free tree-rings from very large wood samples combining photogrammetry, high-resolution image processing, and GIS tools
Dendrochronology; Tropical tree species; Semi-automatic ring measurement; VBA application; Stem disk analysis; Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
Abstract :
[en] We present a new procedure for wood sampling and tree-ring measurement that can be used for dendrochronological investigation on very large trees, specifically adapted for tropical rainforest species. This procedure takes advantage of the technological developments in computing, image processing, and geographic information systems (GIS) to overcome the technical limitations of the currently used methods. Two types of wood samples can be used (stem disks and/or bars) depending on tree diameter, and the difficulty of ring delineation and crossdating. Bars are an effective compromise between cores and disks. We developed an application combining several programs (Excel, R, ArcGIS, and MapWinGIS) in the Windows operating system for semi-automatic measurement of tree-rings from high-resolution images of the sanded cross-section. Using an innovative method to reverse the wood shrinkage resulting from the drying process, tree-ring measurement can be performed on shrinkage-free images, thus referring to the actual growth of the tree.
Research center :
Forest Resources Management, University of Liège, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech
Latte, Nicolas ; Université de Liège > Forêts, Nature et Paysage > Gestion des ressources forestières et des milieux naturels
Beeckman, Hans; Royal Museum for Central Africa > Service of Wood Biology
Bauwens, Sébastien ; Université de Liège > Forêts, Nature et Paysage > Laboratoire de Foresterie des régions trop. et subtropicales
Bonnet, Stéphanie ; Université de Liège > Forêts, Nature et Paysage > Gestion des ressources forestières et des milieux naturels
Lejeune, Philippe ; Université de Liège > Forêts, Nature et Paysage > Gestion des ressources forestières et des milieux naturels
Language :
English
Title :
A novel procedure to measure shrinkage-free tree-rings from very large wood samples combining photogrammetry, high-resolution image processing, and GIS tools
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