Summary

This special issue contains twelve of the papers presented at the International symposium on Vegetation Monitoring, held from 24-26 March 2003 in Birmensdorf, Switzerland, at the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, under the title: State of the Art in Vegetation Monitoring Approaches. The symposium brought together hundred scientists from Europe, USA and New-Zeeland who are active in vegetation monitoring.
The aim of the symposium was to portray and link the knowhow in different fields involved in environmental monitoring. The contributions included methodological aspects from short to long-term vegetation monitoring, from descriptive analysis to environmental modeling as well as to management (development and update) of large data bases. The main topics were 'Remote sensing and modeling', 'Designs and strategies for short and long-term monitoring' and 'Statistical methods and their applications'.

Contents

Wildi, O. ; Feldmeyer-Christe, E.; Ghosh, S.; Zimmermann, N.E.:  Comments on vegetation monitoring approaches         >> download free pdf version	>> abstract
Kohler, F.; Gillet, F.; Progin, M.A.; Gobat, J.M.; Buttler, A.:  Seasonal dynamics of plant species at fine scale in wooded pastures	>> abstract
Percival, D.B.; Wang, M.; Overland, J.E.:  An introduction to wavelet analysis with applications to vegetation time series	>> abstract
Janssen, J.A.M.:  The use of sequential vegetation maps for monitoring in coastal areas	>> abstract
Ohlemüller, R.; Bannister, P.; Dickinson, K.J.M.; Walker, S.; Anderson, B.J.; Wilson, J.B:  Correlates of vascular plant species richness in fragmented indigenous forests: assessing the role of local and regional factors	>> abstract
Küchler, M.; Ecker, K.; Feldmeyer-Christe, E.; Graf, U.; Küchler, H.; Waser, L.T.:   Combining remotely sensed spectral data and digital surface models for fine-scale modelling of mire ecosystems         >> download free pdf version	>> abstract
Washington-Allen, R.A.; Ramsey, R.D.; West, N.E.:  Spatiotemporal mapping of the dry season vegetation response of sagebrush steppe	>> abstract
Sanders, M.E.; Dirkse, G.M.; Slim, P.A.:  Objectifying thematic, spatial and temporal aspects of vegetation mapping for monitoring	>> abstract
Schaepman, M.E.; Koetz, B.; Schaepman-Strub, G.; Zimmermann, N.E.:   Quantitative retrieval of biogeophysical characteristics using imaging spectroscopy - a mountain forest case study         >> download free pdf version	>> abstract
Campetella, G.; Canullo, R.; Bartha, S.:  Coenostate descriptors and spatial dependence in vegetation - derived variables in monitoring forest dynamics and assembly rules	>> abstract
Dirkse, G.M.; Daamen, W.P.:  Dutch forest monitoring network, design and results	>> abstract
Waser, L.T.; Stofer, S.; Schwartz, M.; Küchler, M.; Ivits, E.; Scheidegger, C.:  Prediction of biodiversity - regression of lichen species richness on remote sensing data         >> download free pdf version	>> abstract
Plattner, M.; Birrer, S.; Weber, D.:  Data quality in monitoring plant species richness in Switzerland	>> abstract