A summary statistic that crossed my path a lot this year is growth dominance. Growth dominance is a concentration measure based on the Lorenz curve and was invented by Dan Binkley and his lab at Colorado State University, USA. Together we have worked with this characteristic this year and it has been great fun. We… Continue reading R script for computing growth dominance
Author: Arne Pommerening
My background is in forest science with a PhD in forest biometrics (from Göttingen University (Germany) and a Habilitation in forest biometrics (from BOKU University Vienna (Austria). For eleven years I have been working in the fields of quantitative forest management and quantitative ecology at Bangor University (North Wales, UK) before working for a short while in Switzerland. Since 2014 I work as a Professor in Mathematical Statistics Applied to Forest Science at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU in Umeå and my research areas include woodland structure analysis and modelling, spatio-temporal dynamics of plant point patterns, individual-based modelling with a focus on plant interactions, plant growth analysis, methods of quantifying and monitoring biodiversity and the analysis of human behaviour of selecting trees. Much of my research is computer-based using simulation experiments and my research is strongly interdisciplinary and international.
Forest Biometrics in the Southern US
Being on an extended research visit to one of the world’s Mekkas of Forest Biometrics, Virginia Tech at Blacksburg, I cannot help but notice quite a few differences to European Forest Biometrics. I am currently based on this vast and beautiful campus, where in autumn the tree leaves almost seem to be on fire and the… Continue reading Forest Biometrics in the Southern US
Do humans behave in woodlands?
We are using woodlands for recreation, we pick berries and mushrooms and we select picnic sites at spots in the forest we like. Certain woodlands we tend to avoid, because the tree species and tree densities make them look dark and hostile or we hate prickly brambles. Forest structures that do not allow you to… Continue reading Do humans behave in woodlands?
Relative growth rates
It happens from time to time, doesn’t it, that you are digging into what you believe is a specific set of limited methods and suddenly you uncover a whole universe that stretches over a vast number of research fields. Recently this happened to me again when preparing a review on the concept of relative growth… Continue reading Relative growth rates
Creativity – where do we get it from?
Haven’t we all experienced this? – We can sit for hours in our offices trying to come up with a brilliant new idea, to solve a problem, to shape an important text or to find a nagging error in our computer code. And then out of nowhere, once we have set off to go home… Continue reading Creativity – where do we get it from?
Where to start?
As this is my first posting on this webblog, I am starting it with a “smooth” thought. Forest Sciences as a scientific field have seen many changes since I have been a student in the 1990s. It used to be a world of its own, pretty much uncontested and a microcosm of general science including… Continue reading Where to start?