CFE: Measurement, Models and Analysis

(15-16 August 2005, Cairns, Queensland, Australia)

THE FINAL PROGRAMME IS HERE              ABSTRACTS HERE

This IUFRO conference/workshop focuses on the science of complex forest ecosystems.   This is necessarily a multi-disciplinary scientific domain, since contributions to a unified holistic view are necessary from ecologists, foresters, soil scientists, botanists, physiologists, taxonomists, mathematical and computer modellers, statistical analysts, and others.

All forest ecosystems are complex, and hence this conference, which is concerned with the measurement, modelling and analysis of forest ecosystems, will cover forests from all over the world.  However, topical forests (ecosystems) are particularly complex, and there is a desperate need for the development of new models which will allow a cohesive view to be taken of them, both for scientific understanding, and for the design of conservation measures.  Biodiversity is one aspect system complexity, and its definition, measurement and conservation are high priority aims of sustainable forest-ecology management.

By "measurement" we mean to include modern electronic sensor technology, remote sensing, sampling and inventory methods, forest mensuration including quadrat/plot sample design, and classical mensuration and taxonomic classification.
"Modelliing" is the capture of the system structure and/or dynamics in a mathematical, stochastic, or computer model.
"Analysis" may be systems-analysis, mathematical analysis of theoretical models, or the statistical analysis of data collected from the forest ecosystem.

Digital technologies are crucial in all of these areas, and integrated use of these technologies is necessary for a holistic treatment of complex forest ecosystems for for either science or management.  This integrated methodological domain has recently been termed  "Digital Forestry", and this will possibly be one of the themes of the conference.

Featured speakers (and tentative titles) include:

Keynote:  Rick Condit, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama.
"Models of Tropical Rain forests"
Other invited/keynote speakers:
Chris Margules, Leader, Tropical Landscapes Program,CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems
"Application of modelled species distribution patterns to systematic conservation planning"
George Gertner, University of Illinois, USA. (IUFRO 4.03.01 Coordinator)
"Handling uncertainty in complex forest models"
Robert Monserud, Team Leader, Ecologically Sustainable Production of Forest Resources
PNW Research Station USDA Forest Service, USA 
Keith Rennolls & Matthew Potts University of Greenwich, (IUFRO 4.03 Deputy Coordinator), and Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, University of California, San Diego, USA.
"A Grand Unified Theory of Tropical Fo rests?; Biodiversity and Island Bio-Geography"

Papers are invited which report on new substantive models and results relating to complex forest ecosystems, or which present new or novel techniques of measurement, modelling or analysis of complex forest ecosystems, or which contribution to Digital Forestry.  It is planned that papers will be peer reviewed and published in a suitable text, and/or journal. See Publication for details.