Seeing trees from space: above-ground biomass estimates of intact and degraded montane rainforests from high-resolution optical imagery
Accurately quantifying the above-ground carbon stock of tropical rainforest trees is the core component of “Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation-plus” (REDD+) projects and is important for evaluating the effects of anthropogenic global change. We used high-resolution opti...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
SISEF-Italian Society of Silviculture and Forest Ecology
2017
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/34060/1/Seeing%20trees%20from%20space.pdf https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/34060/2/Seeing%20trees%20from%20space1.pdf https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/34060/ https://iforest.sisef.org/abstract/?id=ifor2204-010 https://doi.org/10.3832/ifor2204-010 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Summary: | Accurately quantifying the above-ground carbon stock of tropical rainforest trees is the core component of “Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation-plus” (REDD+) projects and is important for evaluating the effects of anthropogenic global change. We used high-resolution optical imagery (IKONOS-2) to identify individual tree crowns in intact and degraded rainforests in the mountains of Northern Borneo, comparing our results with 50 ground-based plots dispersed in intact and degraded forests, within which all stems > 10 cm in diameter were measured and identified to species or genus. We used the dimensions of tree crowns detected in the imagery to estimate above-ground biomasses (AGBs) of individual trees and plots. To this purpose, preprocessed IKONOS imagery was segmented using a watershed algorithm; stem diameter values were then estimated from the cross-sectional crown areas of these trees using regression relationships obtained from ground-based measurements. Finally, we calculated the biomass of each tree (AGBT, in kg), and the AGB of plots by summation (AGBP, in Mg ha-1). Remotely sensed estimates of mean AGBT were similar to ground-based estimates in intact and degraded forests, even though small trees could not be detected from space-borne sensors. The intact and degraded forests not only had different AGB but were also dissimilar in biodiversity. A tree-centric approach to carbon mapping based on high-resolution optical imagery, could be a cheap alternative to airborne laser-scanning. |
|---|