public read uid=supersite,o=unaffiliated,dc=ecoinformatics,dc=org all uid=boer,o=unaffiliated,dc=ecoinformatics,dc=org all Dr Matthias Boer University of Western Sydney Senior Lecturer

Locked Bag 1797 Penrith NSQ 2751 Australia

02 4570 1373 m.boer@uws.edu.au Leaf area index (LAI) can be defined as the total one sided area of leaf tissue per unit area of ground and is a key derived parameter that is associated with water and light interception, radiation transfer, water and carbon exchange. Canopy cover can be defined as the fraction of ground shaded by the vertical projection of tree crowns. These measures may be used as proxies for actual canopy leaf area. Leaf area index is the preferred measure of cover for vegetation and is a key variable used in total biomass estimation and in carbon cycling prediction models. Indirect measures of LAI include digital photographic methods using flat or hemispherical images, referred to respectively as Digital Cover Photography (DCP) and (Digital Hemispheric Photography (DHP). LAI measurements are carried out at each SuperSite using the most appropriate method for the vegetation type present. Digital Cover Photography (DCP) was carried out at the Cumberland Plain SuperSite, Core 1 ha on 10 March 2015. The protocol generally followed the SuperSite Vegetation Monitoring protocol (http://www.supersites.net.au/publications-and-resources/resources-for-supersiteusers) using the Digital Canopy Photography method except photo points were located at 5 m intervals along the 10 Gentry Transects (11 photos per transect). Leaf Area Index images are available for viewing and download from the TERN SuperSites BioImage Portal http://bioimages.supersites.net.au/data/lai/cblp/default leaf area index canopy density forest structure Cumberland Plain Supersite 0502 0602 0606 0607 anzsrc-for CC-BY-4_0 2015-03-10 Cumberland Plain, 3 km SW of Richmond NSW 150.7219387 150.7232052 -33.6147528 -33.6158151 1435787615081

Photos taken with Nikon D90 digital SLR with 50 mm lens (AF 50 mm Sensitivity 1:1.8) from ca. 130 cm height on a monopod with 3D levelling device. Camera settings: 1. Exposure: A (priorities aperture). 2. Quality: fine 3. Light measured in multiple points (square with many dots) 4. F 10 5. Autofocus automatic: AF-A Photos were taken at pegs located at 5 m interval along the 10 Gentry Transects. Photos along Gentry Transect 3 were accidently done twice, giving 121 photos in total.

Nikon D90 (2011)

LAI Calculation was carried out using two methods: 1. Images have been processed by ‘canopyphoto’ R package written by Dr. Remko Duursma (Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, University of Western Sydney). The package first reduces the pixel size of the images (calling ImageMagick) and then computes gap fractions according to methods in Macfarlane protocol. Gap fractions are converted to LAI estimates using a constant light extinction coefficient for all photos. 2. Images were analysed with DCP-313 software written by Craig Macfarlane (CSIRO) to compute canopy LAI (MacFarlane et al. 2007). A single (blue) channel image is processed to create a grey-scale. Where RAW images are available, contrast stretching of the blue channel is achieved using the RAW2JPG MATLAB script before saving in JPG format prior to analysis (Macfarlane et al., 2014 Digital canopy photography: Exposed and in the raw. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 197, 244‐253). Both DCP-313 and RAW2JPG executables are available from http://www.tern‐supersites.net.au/index.php/publications‐and‐resources/resources-for-supersiteusers

Data Records. A printed paper data recording sheet was used to record photo numbers in the field. The observations were entered into a local Excel spreadsheet and then formatted according to the standard ASN spreadsheet (SuperSites_Data_Spreadsheet_Standards-20150212.xlsx). The observations from that workbook were exported as: “asn_cblp_veg_lai_20150310_data_table.csv” and submitted to TERN along with an accompanying data table description: “asn_cblp_veg_lai_20150310_data_deposit_form.docx”

asn_cblp_veg_lai_core_1_ha_20150310_MB.csv Cumberland Plain SuperSite, LAI, March 2015 asn_cblp_veg_lai_core_1_ha_20150310_MB.csv 20480 1 #x0A column , ecogrid://knb/supersite.1024.1 cn=allusers,o=unaffiliated,dc=ecoinformatics,dc=org read uid=supersite,o=unaffiliated,dc=ecoinformatics,dc=org all date Date of observations dd/mm/yyyy 0 time Local time of photo hh:mm:ss plot Plot ID Plot ID coord x Approx. distance East in metres from SE plot corner meter natural coord y Approx. distance North in metres from SE plot corner meter natural exposure Camera Exposure setting exposure setting filename Image filename file name lec Light extinction coefficient used in calculation of LAI number natural gf Gap fraction computer from image number natural fc Fraction of crown cover fraction of crown cover cc Crown cover crown cover cp Crown porosity Crown porosity lai LAI computed from image number natural comments Additional information Notes 129 asn_cblp_veg_lai_data_core_1_ha_20150310_MK.csv LAI Data, Cumberland Plain SuperSite, Core 1 ha, 2015 asn_cblp_veg_lai_data_core_1_ha_20150310_MK.csv 18521 0 #x0A column , ecogrid://knb/supersite.1025.1 cn=allusers,o=unaffiliated,dc=ecoinformatics,dc=org read uid=supersite,o=unaffiliated,dc=ecoinformatics,dc=org all Filename Photo filename filename Channel Colour channel of RGB image analysed channel Blue sky Blue sky Yes/No %Mixed % Mixed Percentage natural Lower Maximum Lower Maximum number natural Lower Corner Lower Corner number natural Low Thd Low Thd number natural Mid Thd Mid Thd number natural Min Thd Min Thd number natural High Thd High Thd number natural Upper Corner Upper Corner number natural Upper Maximum Upper Maximum number natural GF Gap Fraction number natural FC Foliage Cover number natural CC Fraction of Crown Cover number natural CP Fraction of Crown Porosity number natural LAI Leaf Area Index number natural Warnings warnings warnings 142 per cent