Neno Aleksandrov(1)* and Emil Molle(2)

1. Department of Silviculture, University of Forestry, 10 Kliment Ohridski Blvd., 1797 Sofia, Bulgaria. E-mail: n_al@abv.bg
2. Department of Ecology, Protection and Remediation of the Environment, University of Forestry, 10 Kliment Ohridski Blvd., 1797 Sofia, Bulgaria. E-mail: emilmolle@gmail.com
 

Forest vertical structure is a characteristic which is of interest for many disciplines and is often discussed in the context of forest ecosystems management. The vertical stratification of tree crowns influences the growth of the single tree and also it determinates the communities thriving beneath the canopy. Close to nature forest management demands the application of silvicultural activities that will maintain the natural structure of the forest. With regard to this, the quantitative assessment of the vertical structure is a particularly important feature. Forest vertical structure is biologically important also because of its relationship with biodiversity. However, the present methods for quantitative analysis are either randomly determined and do not characterize the natural stratification of canopy stand, or they are too time consuming and are developed for analysis on landscape level. The TSTRAT program has been developed in order to define tree stratification in vertical space at stand level. Another approach used for evaluation of structural heterogeneity of stands is the use of different types of indexes. The most commonly applied indexes for vertical structure assessment are FHD index, Gini index, Shanon-Winen index, Pielou index and STVI. The connection between them and the canopy layer determined by TSTRAT, has not yet been clarified. The correlation between different indexes and canopy stratification determined by TSTRAT is being analyzed in this article. Through the execution of multiple simulations on Monte-Carlo method were determined the bootstrap intervals for each index.

SECOND ANNOUNCEMENT

University of Forestry

 University of Forestry Sofia has the pleasure to invite you to participate in the International Scientific Conference 'Forestry: Bridge to the Future', which will take place on 6-9 May 2015 in Sofia, Bulgaria. The venue of the Conference will be Park Hotel Moskva, Sofia. The Conference is dedicated to the 90th Anniversary of higher forestry education in Bulgaria and is organized by the University of Forestry, Sofia and Faculty of Forestry. The Conference sessions will be focused to various topics, starting from global problems like impact of climate change on forests, forest ecology and dynamics to applied issues related to management and use of forest resources. Eminent keynote speakers will take part in the work of Conference: Kevin O'HARA (University of California, Berkeley, CA, USA), Jean-Luc PEYRON (ECOFOR, France), Marcus LINDNER (European Forest Institute, Germany/Finland), and Ivan RAEV (Forest Research Institute, Sofia, Bulgaria). Further information about the Conference concerning all details of registration, accommodation, program, and abstract submission can be found on the official conference web-site: http://conf2015.forestry-ideas.info
We look forward to meet you in Sofia in May 2015.