CAREER: Analyzing, Modeling, and Visualizing 3-Dimensional Complexity of Tropical Rainforest Canopies

The University Of Central Florida Board Of Trustees, Orlando FL

Investigators

Abstract

DEB 99-84574 John Weishampel Visualizing 3-dimensional complexity of tropical rainforest canopies The project will develop a suite of 3-dimensional models (building block-like structures) based on percolation and fractal theory. This approach will help the researchers understand how simple 3-dimensional structures relate to measures of pattern that will be used to quantify the complex organization of simulated and remotely-sensed tropical rainforests. In addition to these analyses, a virtual reality tropical rainforest canopy exhibit for the Orlando Science Center will be created. This exhibit will allow students and other visitors to immerse themselves in a tropical rainforest that undergoes successional processes, like gap dynamics, in just minutes for processes that typically require hundreds of years.