This is the kind of situation that may sometimes result in very high costs in terms of damage to forest ecosystems (Kengen 1997).
When the damage of a forest plant has several causes (for instance, an insect attack followed by the spread of a fungal parasite), all of them are recorded and ranked in their order of importance.
Our results show that ForestGALES is able to simulate very effectively the dynamics of wind damage to forest stands, as the model architecture reflects the significant influence of tree height, stocking density, dbh, and size of an upwind gap, on the calculations of the critical wind speeds of damage.
Pitt's film is expected to be partly based on the book Law of the Jungle, by US journalist Paul Barrett, which details how American oil firm Texaco (now owned by Chevron) overcame an Ecuadorian court order that it should pay $9bn£5.7bnbn) in damages for pollution of forest areas populated by indigenous peoples between 1964 and 1992.
High winds also damaged large swaths of forest and crops, mostly affecting the banana industry.
Iris's strong winds also damaged large swaths of forest, with upwards of 40% of trees affected in some areas.
Hence, continual damage of the natural forest can accentuate the negative effects of climatic change in the area.
Firefighters use geographic information systems to track potential damage along the path of forest fires.
Pennsylvania suffered gypsy-moth damage to 280,000 acres of forest in 1999 and as many as 1.5 million acres this year.
Clearly, satellite photos can't pick up every bit of forest damage, says Diogenes Alves of the National Institute for Space Research in São Paulo.
