Forest Research Institute

About: Forest Research Institute is a facility organization based out in Dehra Dūn, India. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Forest management. The organization has 5320 authors who have published 7625 publications receiving 185876 citations.

SoilTemp: A global database of near-surface temperature

Abstract: Current analyses and predictions of spatially explicit patterns and processes in ecology most often rely on climate data interpolated from standardized weather stations. This interpolated climate data represents long-term average thermal conditions at coarse spatial resolutions only. Hence, many climate-forcing factors that operate at fine spatiotemporal resolutions are overlooked. This is particularly important in relation to effects of observation height (e.g. vegetation, snow and soil characteristics) and in habitats varying in their exposure to radiation, moisture and wind (e.g. topography, radiative forcing or cold-air pooling). Since organisms living close to the ground relate more strongly to these microclimatic conditions than to free-air temperatures, microclimatic ground and near-surface data are needed to provide realistic forecasts of the fate of such organisms under anthropogenic climate change, as well as of the functioning of the ecosystems they live in. To fill this critical gap, we highlight a call for temperature time series submissions to SoilTemp, a geospatial database initiative compiling soil and near-surface temperature data from all over the world. Currently, this database contains time series from 7,538 temperature sensors from 51 countries across all key biomes. The database will pave the way toward an improved global understanding of microclimate and bridge the gap between the available climate data and the climate at fine spatiotemporal resolutions relevant to most organisms and ecosystem processes.

Insect damage to plantation‐grown eucalypts in north coastal new south wales, with particular reference to christmas beetles (coleoptera: scarabaeidae)

Abstract: The Christmas beetles Anoplognathus chloropyrus and A. porosus feed on the leaves of eucalypts, particularly E. grandis, in plantations established for wood pulp production. A. chloropyrus is highly gregarious, causes more damage than does A. porosus, and tends to be present in high numbers in alternate years. Because of the timing of the insects’ life cycles, and their feeding preferences, defoliation levels below about 50 % are unlikely to reduce the rate of tree growth. Severe defoliation is limited to young trees planted on old grasslands which provide a favoured breeding place for the insects. Possible methods of minimizing damage by A. chloropyrus are discussed.