Date of Award
6-2026
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science - Forestry
Department
Forestry
First Advisor
Brian P. Oswald
Second Advisor
Kathryn R. Kidd
Third Advisor
Jeremy P. Stovall
Abstract
With global climate shifts, there has been an increased risk for extreme wildfires in places where they did not previously occur, such as the Netherlands. Canopy fires are of specific concern as fire suppression policies have allowed both live and dead fuels to accumulate. While studies looking at understory and ground level fuels have been conducted in the Netherlands, data concerning canopy fuel behavior remain limited, while in the United States, such research is common. As a result, fuel models for the estimation of canopy fire behavior in the Netherlands are lacking sufficient data to be useful. However, canopy fuel data in the United States is far less limited and can be used to bolster data collected in the Netherlands. Individual tree measurements, including total height, height to live crown, and canopy diameter, were used to calculate the canopy bulk density (CBD) of loblolly pine and shortleaf pine across two sites in East Texas: Boggy Slough Conservation Area and Fairchild State Forest. Hemispherical canopy photography was used to determine the drip line leaf area indices (DLLAI), which may be used to support CBD results. Data were compared with the CBDs and DLLAIs of Scots pine and black pine from the Nationaal Park Utrechtse Heuvelrug and the Schoorlse Duinen in The Netherlands. Data used for Scots pine and black pine were collected using a Sunnto Clinometer, a diameter tape, and hemispherical canopy photography. Differences between the CBDs and DLLAIs of loblolly pine and Scots pine, as well as those of shortleaf pine and black pine, are statistically significant and vary based on total height and height to live crown. This information is important as it indicates that further research must be done to either find adequate surrogates for Scots pine and black pine and to further document fuels in the Netherlands. Such an improvement in understanding will allow for better management practices and increased knowledge about the risks of canopy fire in a changing global environment.
Repository Citation
Ahlstrom, Lauren N.; Oswald, Brian P.; Kidd, Kathryn R.; and Stovall, Jeremy P., "A COMPARISON OF CANOPY BULK DENSITY BETWEEN TWO NORTH AMERICAN PINES AND TWO EUROPEAN PINES" (2026). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 688.
https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/etds/688
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
