THERMAL INVERSIONS IDENTIFICATION THROUGH THE ANALYSIS OF THE VEGETATION INVERSIONS OCCURRED IN THE FOREST ECOSYSTEMS FROM THE EASTERN CARPATHIANS

Abstract

The earth’s climate has a direct impact on the spatial distribution of the vegetation cover. Forests are one of the most prevalent ecosystems on earth. The forest’s structure, if unaltered, can be an indicator of some climate patterns. This paper proposes an algorithm for identifying vegetation inversions within mountain forest ecosystems in the eastern Carpathians of Romania, using freely available GIS and remote sensing data. Air temperature has a direct impact on the spatial distribution of tree species. Therefore, temperature-inversion spatial patterns can be estimated.

Keywords

• temperature inversion
• old-growth forest
• vegetation inversions
• remote sensing