Some applications in forestry of biological digital image processing

It is shown that chromatin (DNA) distribution patterns in the nuclei of insect cells provide predictors related to the future development of the insect population. The patterns are extracted from digital images of the nuclei. The systems described have been implemented at the Pacific Forestry Centre. In previous reports this has been demonstrated in laboratory populations; here it is demonstrated for field populations and therefore has great significance for forest managers. Systems for nematodes and electrophoresis gels are also described. There are many such opportunities in forestry to apply biological digital image processing for the extraction of information that is not evident to the human eye-brain combination.<
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