Relation between Leaf Area Index and Distance from Forest Road in Cut and Fill Slopes

Subject Areas : natural resorces

آزاده دلجویی ¹ , Seyed Mohammad Moein Sadeghi ² , احسان عبدی ³

1 - PhD Student of Forest Engineering, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, I.R. Iran
2 - PhD Student of Silviculture and Forest Ecology, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, I.R. Iran
3 - Associate Professor, Forestry and Forest Economic Department, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, I.R. Iran

Received: 2025-02-03 Accepted : 2025-05-03 Published : 2025-12-06

Keywords: Effective distance, Hemispherical photography, Kheyrud forest, Road ecology, Transect,

Abstract :

Background and Objective: In forest ecology, Leaf Area Index (LAI) was used as a parameter of vegetation canopy response to environmental change. The aim was to compare the value of leaf area index (LAI) in the edges of secondary forest roads with LAI value in the forest interior on both cut and fill slopes in hornbeam-beech stands located in Kheyrud forest.

Method: Sixteen transects with the length of 100 meters (eight transects in fill slopes and eight transects in cut slopes) extending from the road edges into the forest were selected randomly in and along each transect, the canopy were hemispherically photographed in 9 points with different distances from the roadside (0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 45, 60, and 100 meters).

Findings: Average values of LAI in fill slopes (3.29) was obtained significantly greater than that of cut slopes (3.15) (p = 0.026). LAI values at the zero and five meters into the forest were significantly lower than 15 meter both in cut and fill slopes (p < 0.05). Reciprocal logarithmic was found as the best relation between LAI and distance from road edges in both slopes based on the parameters of determination coefficient, Nash and Sutcliffe's efficiency coefficient, mean bias error, and normalized mean percentage error.

Discussion and Conclusion: Over the past 26 years of road constructing, low road width, low-traffic have been according based on nature and topography of Kheyrud as a natural forest which was resulted in mitigating the negative effects of forest roads on LAI up to maximum 10 meters into the forest interior.

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