Stem profile modeling in Cerrado and tropical forests formations in Brazil

• Ano de defesa: 2013
• Autor(a) principal: Nunes, Matheus Henrique
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: eng
• Instituição de defesa: Biblioteca Digitais de Teses e Dissertações da USP
• Palavras-chave em Português: Análise de componentes principais; Analytic geometry; Função de afilamento; Geometria analítica; Geometric form modeling; Modelagem de forma geométrica; Modelagem volumétrica; Principal component analysis; Taper equation; Volume modeling
• Link de acesso: http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/11/11150/tde-30102013-131728/

Accurate information about tree volume in tropical vegetation formations is critical for the identification of potential areas for sustainable timber production, carbon estimation and biodiversity conservation. Difficult access and the cost of obtaining a large number of samples needed for accurate wood volume and biomass determination are often barriers for carrying out inventories and studies in natural forests in Brazil. Therefore, the development of more efficient techniques of mensuration in tropical forests is an important mechanism for conservation, management and production advancement. The main purposes of this thesis are: introducing a new method for quantifying vertical and horizontal structures by using principal component analysis (PCA); developing two different approaches of volume modeling, one based on DBH and another based on crown area; proposing a new taper equation for native vegetation in three different formations; and estimating upper section diameters to become the geometric form method useful in natural vegetation in Brazil and reducing dependence on destructive measurements.