Understorey condition scoring of Ghanaian lowland tropical moist forest during stock survey: a technique for regulating the allowable cut in ecologically and structurally degraded production forest.
1994
Maginnis, S.
Understorey condition scoring is described and illustrated with forest inventory data from Ghana. This technique is a rapid assessment field technique for appraising and delimiting the various stages of ecological and structural decline in fire-degraded, lowland, tropical moist forest. The scoring system is designed to be incorporated into stock survey. It is simple and consistent, with only minimal time and labour requirements. The degree of degradation is assessed from the understorey vegetation structure contained within the first 2 m of the stand's vertical profile, and is assigned to one of six categories according to the proportion of degraded understorey observed during a 360ø sweep of a 20-m radius sample plot. This can distinguish localized, degraded areas from naturally degraded forest ('chablis'), and a high sampling intensity is employed to enable accurate mapping of the forest condition. Establishing the spatial extent and degree of degradation facilitates a more appropriate determination of the allowable cut at the sub-compartmental level, thereby affording protection to affected areas of forest against further ecological and structural deterioration. Other uses of the system are discussed briefly, such as long-term monitoring of forest health, and targeting dry-season fire-control operations.
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Este registro bibliográfico ha sido proporcionado por Forestry Research Institute of Ghana