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Geometry matters for sonic tomography of trees

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Abstract

Key Message

Due to the simplifying assumptions used to analyze acoustic wave propagation in trees, the accuracy of sonic tomograms varies significantly according to the geometry of the measured tree part.

Abstract

For trees growing in communities, arborists routinely check for evidence of damaged wood during tree risk assessment, and sonic tomography is occasionally used to measure the amount of internal damage in trees. Existing studies investigating the accuracy of commercially available sonic tomography devices have mostly considered a limited range of measurement conditions, limiting their application in practice. Using measurements incorporating greater variability in test conditions, this study examined the accuracy of sonic tomography by comparing the percent damaged cross-sectional area in tomograms with the destructively measured internal condition of trees. Although the accuracy of tomograms differed between the examined temperate and tropical tree species, the variation was largely explained by underlying differences in the cross-sectional geometry of the measured tree parts. The amount of decay was repeatedly underestimated in measurements of small, circular cross sections, and, conversely, it was consistently overestimated in measurements of large, irregularly shaped cross sections. Using different approaches to generating and interpreting tomograms, a wide range of decay estimates was obtained for a given set of measurements. By adjusting software settings, it was possible to obtain tomograms with the least error for a given cross-sectional geometry, and the tomograms could be visually interpreted to similarly compensate for the anticipated measurement error. Although practitioners can use the identified strategies to compensate for the expected measurement error in different situations, there is also a fundamental need to develop improved measurement and analysis routines for sonic tomography relying on physically realistic assumptions about acoustic wave propagation in wood.

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Data and code availability

The data used in this study were deposited in the Harvard Dataverse (https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/RGJFMR), and the MATLAB code used for image processing was uploaded to a public GitHub repository (https://github.com/danielburcham/geomProp).

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge Ms. Clarice Xu Huiyue and Mr. Robin Ong for their practical assistance with sonic tomography and destructive verification in Singapore.

Funding

The National Science Foundation EArly Concepts Grants for Exploratory Research (EAGER) Program (Grant #DEB-1346258) supported tomography and destructive measurements of temperate trees, and the National Parks Board, Singapore supported tomography and destructive measurements of tropical trees.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Urban Greenery and Ecology, National Parks Board, Singapore, 259569, Singapore

    Daniel C. Burcham

  2. Center for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, 01003, USA

    Nicholas J. Brazee

  3. Department of Plant Pathology and Ecology, Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, New Haven, CT, 06504, USA

    Robert E. Marra

  4. Department of Environmental Conservation, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, 01003, USA

    Brian Kane

  5. Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, 80523, USA

    Daniel C. Burcham

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  1. Daniel C. Burcham
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  2. Nicholas J. Brazee
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  4. Brian Kane
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Correspondence to Daniel C. Burcham.

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Communicated by H. Gärtner .

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Burcham, D.C., Brazee, N.J., Marra, R.E. et al. Geometry matters for sonic tomography of trees. Trees 37, 837–848 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00468-023-02387-4

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