As the global community increasingly recognizes the critical importance of sustainable forest management, this section contains handy tools to support the researchers and professionals in the field.
Cumulative Temperature Calculator
The cumulative temperature calculator provides a tool for calculating accumulated thermal sum (heat sum, degree days, d.d.). Daily average temperature data (degrees Celsius) is used for the calculation.
Accumulated thermal sum is a meteorological concept describing cumulative heat during a certain period. It accumulates when daily average temperatures are above +5 °C. It is essential for agriculture, forestry and many insect species, as it affects the length of the growing season and the life cycle of insects.
For example, in Finland, the European spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus) needs approximately 700 d.d. to develop the first generation during the summer. A possible second generation may be developed when 1500 d.d. has been exceeded. The dates defined in the Forest Damages Prevention Act for the removal of timber from a forest are based on the maturation of the first generation, thus the heat sum limits are important from a forestry perspective.
For the result, upload a CSV file (comma-separated values file) containing daily temperature data. You can download the data, for example, from the webpage of the Finnish Meteorological Institute (https://en.ilmatieteenlaitos.fi/download-observations).
1) Choose Parameters → Weather observations → Daily observations → Average temperature.
2) Choose the desired time period.
3) Choose the observation station by writing the station name or selecting it from the map.
4) Download the observations. Then save the ‘Download results in CSV format’ -file.
5) Add the CSV file in the Upload bar on this Tools -site.