Biomass and Remote Sensing of Biomass Part 1 doc

Used under license from Shutterstock.com First published August, 2011 Printed in Croatia A free online edition of this book is available at www.intechopen.com Additional hard copies can

BIOMASS AND REMOTE  SENSING OF BIOMASS 

  Edited by Islam Atazadeh 

Biomass and Remote Sensing of Biomass

Edited by Islam Atazadeh

Published by InTech

Janeza Trdine 9, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia

Copyright © 2011 InTech

All chapters are Open Access articles distributed under the Creative Commons

Non Commercial Share Alike Attribution 3.0 license, which permits to copy,

distribute, transmit, and adapt the work in any medium, so long as the original

work is properly cited After this work has been published by InTech, authors

have the right to republish it, in whole or part, in any publication of which they

are the author, and to make other personal use of the work Any republication,

referencing or personal use of the work must explicitly identify the original source Statements and opinions expressed in the chapters are these of the individual contributors and not necessarily those of the editors or publisher No responsibility is accepted for the accuracy of information contained in the published articles The publisher assumes no responsibility for any damage or injury to persons or property arising out

of the use of any materials, instructions, methods or ideas contained in the book

Publishing Process Manager Niksa Mandic

Technical Editor Teodora Smiljanic

Cover Designer Jan Hyrat

Image Copyright linerpics, 2010 Used under license from Shutterstock.com

First published August, 2011

Printed in Croatia

A free online edition of this book is available at www.intechopen.com

Additional hard copies can be obtained from orders@intechweb.org

Biomass and Remote Sensing of Biomass, Edited by Islam Atazadeh

p cm

ISBN 978-953-307-490-0

free online editions of InTe ch Books and Journals can be found at

www.inte chopen.com

Contents

Preface IX

Part 1 Biomass 1

Chapter 1 Biomass in Evolving World -

Individual’s Point of View 3

Biljana Stojković Chapter 2 Ecological Aspects of Biomass Removal

in the Localities Damaged by Air-Pollution 21

Jiří Novák, Marian Slodičák, David Dušek and Dušan Kacálek Chapter 3 Invasive Plant Species

and Biomass Production in Savannas 35

John K Mworia Chapter 4 Zooplankton Abundance, Biomass and

Trophic State in Some Venezuelan Reservoirs 57

Ernesto J González, María L Matos, Carlos Peñaherrera and Sandra Merayo Chapter 5 Estimation of Above-Ground Biomass of Wetlands 75

Laimdota Truus Chapter 6 Soil Microbial Biomass Under

Native Cerrado and Its Changes After the Pasture and Annual Crops Introduction 87

Leidivan A Frazão, João Luis N Carvalho, André M Mazzetto, Felipe José C Fracetto, Karina Cenciani, Brigitte J Feigl and Carlos C Cerri Chapter 7 The Above-Ground Biomass

Production and Distribution in White Willow Community During 11 Years of Primary Succession 111

Petr Maděra, Diana Lopéz and Martin Šenfeldr

VI Contents

Part 2 Remote Sensing of Biomass 127

Chapter 8 Introduction to Remote Sensing of Biomass 129

Muhammad Aqeel Ashraf, Mohd Jamil Maah and Ismail Yusoff Chapter 9 Biomass of Fast-Growing Weeds in a

Tropical Lake: An Assessment of the Extent and the Impact with Remote Sensing and GIS 171

Tasneem Abbasi, K.B Chari and S A Abbasi Chapter 10 Application of Artificial Neural Network

(ANN) to Predict Soil Organic Matter Using Remote Sensing Data in Two Ecosystems 181

Shamsollah Ayoubi, Ahmahdreza Pilehvar Shahri, Parisa Mokhtari Karchegani and Kanwar L Sahrawat

Part 3 Carbon Storage 197

Chapter 11 A Comparative Study of Carbon Sequestration

Potential in Aboveground Biomass in Primary Forest and Secondary Forest, Khao Yai National Park 199

Jiranan Piyaphongkul, Nantana Gajaseni and Anuttara Na-Thalang Chapter 12 Carbon Storage in Cold Temperate

Ecosystems in Southern Patagonia, Argentina 213

Pablo Luis Peri

Part 4 Primary Productivity 227

Chapter 13 Long-Term UVR Effects Upon Phytoplankton

Natural Communities of Patagonian Coastal Waters 229

Silvana R Halac, Virginia E Villafañe, Rodrigo J Gonçalves and E Walter Helbling Chapter 14 In Situ Primary Production

Measurements as an Analytical Support

to Remote Sensing - An Experimental Approach

to Standardize the 14 C Incorporation Technique 249

Tamara Cibic and Damiano Virgilio

Preface

Generally, biomass is used for all materials originating from photosynthesis. In other  words, biomass includes all plant growth, herbaceous plants, microalgae, macroalgae 

and aquatic plants. But biomass can equally apply to animal as well. In fact, biomass is 

carbon based and is composed of a mixture of organic molecules containing hydrogen,  usually  including  atoms  of  oxygen,  often  nitrogen  and  also  small  quantities  of  other  atoms, including alkali, alkaline earth and heavy metals.  

There  are  various  ways  and  methods  used  for  evaluation  of  biomass.  One  of  these  ways is remote sensing. Remote sensing provides information not only about biomass  but  also  about  biodiversity  and  environmental  factors  estimation  over  a  wide  area.  This  information  includes  temporal  resolution  and  a  synopsis  and  digital  formatting  that  allows  for  the  initial  processing  of  large  amounts  of  data.  There  is  a  high  correlation  between  spectral  bands  and  vegetation  parameters.  The  advantages  of  most remote sensing application for plants and phytoplankton in inland waters aim at 

the  retrieval  of  the  chlorophyll  a,  as  this  pigment  is  a  useful  proxy  for  the  plant 

biomass.  Although  the  pigment  ratio  provides  an  easily  quantifiable  approach  to  monitoring, doubts have been raised about interpretation of the results, so the method  should  only  be  used  as  one  of  several  methods  for  monitoring.  The  shift  in  pigment  ratio may be influenced by the fact that more old plant material is likely to be included 

in samples from sites where the organism is stressed.  

The great potential of remote sensing has received considerable attention over the last  few  decades  in  many  different  areas  in  biological  science  including  nutrient  status  assessment,  weed  abundance,  deforestation,  glacial  features  in  Arctic  and  Antarctic  regions, depth sounding of coastal and ocean depths, and density mapping. 

  Islam Atazadeh 

Researcher in Plant Science, 

Razi University,  Kermanshah, 

Iran   

Part 1

Biomass

1

Biomass in Evolving World

- Individual’s Point of View

Biljana Stojković

University of Belgrade

Serbia

1 Introduction

For a long time, ecology has been criticized for being primarily descriptive science concentrated on the ‘What’ question rather than progressing further into the ‘Why’ and

‘How’ domains (O’Connor, 2000) Over the past few decades, however, ecology has moved toward dynamic mechanistic and more strongly predictive science (Kearney et al., 2010) It

is becoming increasingly clear that to comprehend mechanisms underlying population dynamics, demography and ecological breadth it is necessary to regard the fact that discrete organisms, which constitute populations, might have different individual responses to ontogenetic and environmental cues (Begon et al., 1990) The challenge is, as noted by Kearney et al (2010), “to derive an approach for studying penetrance of functional traits of individual organisms into higher, group-level phenomena”

Generally, the interdependency of population-level and individual-level processes is very complex Although population is composed of individuals, it has emergent properties that are more than just the sum of the properties of individuals Organisms come to life and die

on particular days, but populations have birth and death rates At any specific moment, individuals are of certain age, but populations have age structure which is very important for determining population growth Individual characteristics, such as size, growth pattern, age at maturity, number of offspring and longevity, greatly influence population dynamics, but, on the other hand, physiology and patterns of growth and development of each organism depend both on its genotype and on population properties such as the number, sizes and spatial distribution of other individuals Therefore, the relationship between organisms and their populations is reflexive; phenomena at one biological level are both the cause and the consequence of the phenomena on other

This chapter is dealing with individual level processes – biomass allocation strategy, allometric growth and phenotypic plasticity How these developmental processes may affect population dynamics will also be discussed

2 Individual-level phenomena

2.1 Allometry and allocation strategy

Allometry (Greek allos, “other”, and metron, “measure”; Huxley, 1932) is the study of

size-correlated variations in biological forms and processes Niklas (1994) recognizes three conceptual and methodological meanings of this term: 1) the growth of one part of an

Biomass and Remote Sensing of Biomass

4

organism in relation to the growth of the whole organism or some other part of it, 2) the study of the consequences of size on organic form or process, and 3) any departure from geometry and shape that is conserved among a series of objects differing in size Literally, allometry means unequal growth of organs during development of an organism The fundamental biological principle presumes that acquisition of external resources and metabolism, producing energy and materials for all biological processes, enable organisms

to grow in size (i.e., enlarge biomass) However, in biological systems, increase in absolute size always goes along with modifications in relative sizes of organismal parts In other words, by growing larger, individuals alter their shape; growth itself is size-dependent, i.e allometric (Weiner, 2004) This process is a consequence of inherent continuous changes in directions of biomass allocation into different structures and activities during the course of development, and reflects alterations in priorities at any point of time of individual ontogenesis For example, early in development, after germination and emergence of radicle (part of a plant embryo which develops in a root), plants have more roots than shoots Later,

as they grow, relative allocation into aboveground structures increases and results in more

‘shooty’ individuals A late fetus has a larger head and shorter legs in relation to its body length than an adult human Alteration in growth pattern during human ontogeny accounts for later changes in body part proportions Metabolic rates and the heat produced by metabolism increase less rapidly than total body size

From the ecological point of view, biomass allocation strategy plays a critical role in determining organismal ability to survive and reproduce (i.e., fitness) If an ideal organism would exist, it would be mature at birth, continuously produce a large number of high-quality offspring, and live forever Such an organism, called ‘Darwinian demon’ (Law, 1979), would bedevil all other organisms The same creature, named ‘Hutchinsonian demon’

in community ecology, would dominate in its habitat because it would be the best in colonizing new patches, utilizing all the resources, avoiding predators and resisting stresses (Kneitel & Chase, 2004), and, eventually, it would monopolize the life on Earth In reality, however, the existence of such an organism is impossible because: 1) the amount of resources (i.e., nutrients and energy) that an organism can acquire is finite, and 2) a proportion of the resources allocated to one activity (for example to growth, that is to somatic maintenance and survival), decreases the amount of resources that can be allocated

to another (e.g., to reproduction) As noted by Stearns (1992), “allocation decisions between two or more processes that compete directly with one another for limited resources within a

single individual” imply mutually exclusive allocation, or physiological trade-off

If an increase in fitness due to a change in one trait is opposed by a decrease in fitness due to

a concomitant change in the second trait, it is clear that adaptive growth strategy in one environment depends on optimal balance of biomass allocation between different organismal functions (Roff & Fairbairn, 2007) Individuals must allocate resources in a way that make the most of their chances for contributing offspring to the next generation while simultaneously maximizing their chance of surviving to reproduce (Gurevitch et al., 2002) Among characteristics that figure directly in reproduction and survival, and are often in trade-off between each other, Stearns (1992) indicated several principal life-history traits: size at birth, growth pattern, age at maturity, size at maturity, number, size and sex ratio of offspring, age- and size-specific reproductive investments, age- and size-specific mortality schedules, and length of life Correlations between these traits may be positive or negative (trade-offs), but eventually they combine in many different ways to produce diverse schedules and durations of key events in an organism's lifetime Logically, natural selection

Biomass in Evolving World - Individual’s Point of View 5

in one environment may prioritize some capabilities at the expense of others As a consequence, different life-histories evolve

2.2.1 The evolution of life-histories

The developmental paths that describe changes in form (“ontogenetic trajectory”; Magwene, 2001) and life-history schedule are often considered to be genetically determined, i.e., species- or genotype-specific (Weiner, 2004), and/or the products of biomechanical and other physical constraints (Givnish, 1986) These assertions have been brought into question

by the well documented fact that allometry itself can be plastic and trade-offs may vary with environmental variations (e.g., Cheplick, 1995; Weiner, 2004), as well as because a significant degree of variability in life-histories can exist within populations However, they still can serve as a starting point for understanding life-history evolution Comparative biology has demonstrated a great variety of life-histories at the level of species and higher taxonomic groups In plants, besides tremendous variation in life-cycle patterns, from annual semelparous forms to long-lived iteroparous woody perennials, interesting variations can be found in growth architecture of clonal plants with vegetative reproduction Lovett Doust (1981) made characterization of these clonal forms on a continuum between ‘phalanx’, in which vegetative clones (ramets) of one parental plant are grouped tightly together, and

‘guerilla’ form, which is presented with ramets dispersed like guerilla forces Vegetative reproduction makes an interesting case on the diversity of life-histories For example, in

quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) individual trunks, which are genetically identical to

their paternal plant, live for about 50 years, while the genotype composed of many individual plants, may live for more than 10 000 years In animals, some species mature early and reproduce quickly, have small body size and a large number of eggs (e.g., many insects), whereas in other species maturation is delayed for several years, individuals are large and have a small number of offspring (e.g., some mammals) Between these extremes,

a great variety of different combinations of life-history schedules and growth forms exists Although it is reasonable to presume that there is individual variability within each species, relations between life-history traits differ substantially more between higher taxonomic groups Darwin elegantly explained this phenomenon – related species descended from a common ancestor and shared common evolutionary history for a long time These ‘lineage-specific effects’ emphasize characteristics that are general for a group of related species or higher taxonomic levels The comparative analyses of species, genera, families and classes demonstrate broad patterns of the evolution of allometry, trade-offs and life-history The examples of how lineage-specific mode of growth affects metabolic and growth rates, and reproduction, can be found all over the living world Major groups of ectothermal and endothermal organisms have different metabolisms and different growth rates per unit weight during growth, which is involved in determination of age at maturity and the cost of reproduction For ectothermal organisms, about thirty times less energy supply is needed for the same growth rate as for endothermal (Peters, 1983) Organisms with determinate growth (e.g., annual plants, birds, mammals, and most insects) stop growing when mature, whereas allocation of energy between growth and reproduction continues through adult life for organisms with indeterminate growth, such as perennial plants, fish, amphibians, reptiles, etc That means that ‘allocation decision’ between growth and reproduction is made only once for the first group, and many times for the second (Stearns, 1992) The analyses of more than 500 mammal species (Wootton, 1987) imply that body mass is positively correlated with age at first reproduction Age at maturity is also positively correlated with