Ordway, Elsa M;
Asner, Gregory P;
Burslem, David FRP;
Lewis, Simon L;
Nilus, Reuben;
Martin, Roberta E;
O’Brien, Michael J;
... Moorcroft, Paul R; + view all
(2022)
Mapping tropical forest functional variation at satellite remote sensing resolutions depends on key traits.
Communications Earth & Environment
, 3
, Article 247. 10.1038/s43247-022-00564-w.
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Abstract
Although tropical forests differ substantially in form and function, they are often represented as a single biome in global change models, hindering understanding of how different tropical forests will respond to environmental change. The response of the tropical forest biome to environmental change is strongly influenced by forest type. Forest types differ based on functional traits and forest structure, which are readily derived from high resolution airborne remotely sensed data. Whether the spatial resolution of emerging satellite-derived hyperspectral data is sufficient to identify different tropical forest types is unclear. Here, we resample airborne remotely sensed forest data at spatial resolutions relevant to satellite remote sensing (30 m) across two sites in Malaysian Borneo. Using principal component and cluster analysis, we derive and map seven forest types. We find ecologically relevant variations in forest type that correspond to substantial differences in carbon stock, growth, and mortality rate. We find leaf mass per area and canopy phosphorus are critical traits for distinguishing forest type. Our findings highlight the importance of these parameters for accurately mapping tropical forest types using space borne observations.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Mapping tropical forest functional variation at satellite remote sensing resolutions depends on key traits |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1038/s43247-022-00564-w |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-022-00564-w |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
| Keywords: | Ecosystem ecology, Forest ecology |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of Geography UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10158155 |
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