Development of a Rapid and Precise Method of Digital Image Analysis to Quantify Canopy Density and Structural Complexity

Goodenough, Anne E ORCID: 0000-0002-7662-6670 and Goodenough, Andrew S. (2011) Development of a Rapid and Precise Method of Digital Image Analysis to Quantify Canopy Density and Structural Complexity. ISRN Ecology, 2012. pp. 1-11. doi:10.5402/2012/619842

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Abstract

Estimation of canopy density is necessary for ecological research and woodland management. However, traditional manual methods are time consuming and subject to interobserver variability, while existing photographic methods usually require expensive fish-eye lenses and complex analysis. Here we introduce and test a new method of digital image analysis, CanopyDigi. This allows user-defined threshold to polarise the 256 grey shades of a standard monochrome bitmap into dark “canopy” and light “sky” pixels (the threshold being selected using false-colour images to ensure its suitability). Canopy density data are calculated automatically and rapidly, and, unlike many other common methods, aggregation data are obtainable using Morisita’s index to differentiate closed (diffuse light) and open (direct light) canopies. Results were highly repeatable in both homogeneous and heterogeneous woodland. Estimates correlated strongly with existing (nondigital) canopy techniques, but quicker and with significantly lower interobserver variability (CV = 3.74% versus 20.73%). We conclude that our new method is an inexpensive and precise technique for quantifying canopy density and aggregation.

Item Type:	Article
Article Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Int Sch Res Notices. 2017; 2017: 3493691. Published online 2017 January 18. doi: 10.1155/2017/3493691 Erratum to “Development of a Rapid and Precise Method of Digital Image Analysis to Quantify Canopy Density and Structural Complexity” This corrects the article in volume 2012 on page 619842.In the article titled “Development of a Rapid and Precise Method of Digital Image Analysis to Quantify Canopy Density and Structural Complexity,” [1] the description of the Supplementary Materials was incorrect. The correct description should be as follows. The suite of computer software comprising CanopyDigi is presented here as supplementary material as a zip file. The entire contents of the zip file, including all files and the folder structure, should be extracted to a root directory (e.g., C drive) in the format C:[backslash]CanopyDigi (not C:[backslash]CanopyDigi[backslash]CanopyDigi). The software can run from any root drive, including an external drive.
Subjects:	Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA76 Computer software Q Science > QH Natural history > QH301 Biology T Technology > TR Photography
Divisions:	Schools and Research Institutes > School of Education and Science
Research Priority Areas:	Place, Environment and Community
Depositing User:	Anne Goodenough
Date Deposited:	04 May 2016 10:08
Last Modified:	31 Aug 2023 08:59
URI:	https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/id/eprint/3352

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