Wind damage to forests is an important ecological disturbance factor. At the same time, it can have serious economic consequences due to a reduction in timber production. Current models for predicting the risk of wind damage are useful, but generally only focus on the ''mean'' tree within uniform stands. This paper presents measurements made of wind loading on trees of different sizes within four forest stands of different structure and management history, but all well-acclimated to current wind conditions. Each tree demonstrated a linear relationship between the maximum hourly turning moment and the square of the average hourly wind speed at the canopy top; we defined this ratio (the gradient of the line M max vs. u 2 ) as the turning moment coefficient (T C ). T C was correlated with tree size, in a relationship that differed little between the four forest sites despite the differences between the stands. The relationship between T C and individual tree competition within each stand was investigated, using both distance-independent and distance-dependent competition indices. All sites showed decreasing T C with increasing competition. However, the relationships differed between sites and would also be expected to change through time for a single site. The distance-dependent indices offered no improvement over the simpler, non-spatial indices that required only a diameter distribution. We suggest how, subject to further work, the results presented could be applied to calculate the risk of wind damage to trees of different sizes within a forest stand, and how the risk of wind damage to individual trees might change in response to thinning.

Isotopic data provide powerful constraints on regional and global methane emissions and their source profiles. However, inverse modeling of spatially resolved methane flux is currently constrained by a lack of information on the variability of source isotopic signatures. In this study, isotopic signatures of emissions in the Fennoscandian Arctic have been determined in chambers over wetland, in the air 0.3 to 3 m above the wetland surface and by aircraft sampling from 100 m above wetlands up to the stratosphere. Overall, the methane flux to atmosphere has a coherent δ 13 C isotopic signature of À71 ± 1‰, measured in situ on the ground in wetlands. This is in close agreement with δ 13 C isotopic signatures of local and regional methane increments measured by aircraft campaigns flying through air masses containing elevated methane mole fractions. In contrast, results from wetlands in Canadian boreal forest farther south gave isotopic signatures of À67 ± 1‰. Wetland emissions dominate the local methane source measured over the European Arctic in summer. Chamber measurements demonstrate a highly variable methane flux and isotopic signature, but the results from air sampling within wetland areas show that emissions mix rapidly immediately above the wetland surface and methane emissions reaching the wider atmosphere do indeed have strongly coherent C isotope signatures. The study suggests that for boreal wetlands (>60°N) global and regional modeling can use an isotopic signature of À71‰ to apportion sources more accurately, but there is much need for further measurements over other wetlands regions to verify this.