Pan-tropical prediction of forest structure from the largest trees

Aim Large tropical trees form the interface between ground and airborne observations, offering a unique opportunity to capture forest properties remotely and to investigate their variations on broad scales. However, despite rapid development of metrics to characterize the forest canopy from remotely...

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Published in:	Global ecology and biogeography Vol. 27; no. 11; pp. 1366 - 1383
Main Authors:	Bastin, Jean-François, Rutishauser, Ervan, Kellner, James R., Saatchi, Sassan, Pélissier, Raphael, Hérault, Bruno, De Cannière, Charles, Marshall, Andrew R., Poulsen, John, Alvarez-Loyayza, Patricia, Andrade, Ana, Angbonga-Basia, Albert, Araujo-Murakami, Alejandro, Arroyo, Luzmila, de Azevedo, Celso Paulo, Banki, Olaf, Barbier, Nicolas, Barroso, Jorcely G., Boehning-Gaese, Katrin, Brandão, Hilandia, Hockemba, Mireille Breuer Ndoundou, Brienen, Roel, Camargo, Jose Luis C., Campos-Arceiz, Ahimsa, Cassart, Benoit, Chave, Jérôme, Chazdon, Robin, Chuyong, Georges, Clark, David B., Condit, Richard, Coronado, Euridice N. Honorio, Davidar, Priya, de Haulleville, Thalès, Doucet, Jean-Louis, Droissart, Vincent, Espinosa, Santiago, Farwig, Nina, Fayolle, Adeline, Feldpausch, Ted R., Ferraz, Antonio, Fletcher, Christine, Gajapersad, Krisna, Gillet, Jean-François, do Amaral, Iêda Leão, Gonmadje, Christelle, Grogan, James, Herzog, Sebastian K., Homeier, Jürgen, Hubau, Wannes, Kamdem, Narcisse G., Kearsley, Elizabeth, Kenfack, David, Kessler, Michael, Laumonier, Yves, Laurance, Susan, Laurance, William F., Libalah, Moses B., Lloyd, Jon, Marimon, Beatriz S., Junior, Ben Hur Marimon, Martin, Emmanuel H., Meyer, Victoria, Bautista, Casimero Mendoza, Monteagudo-Mendoza, Abel, Mtui, Arafat, Neill, David, Pardo, Guido, Parren, Marc, Parthasarathy, N., Pitman, Nigel C. A., Ploton, Pierre, Ponette, Quentin, Ramesh, B. R., Razafimahaimodison, Jean-Claude, Réjou-Méchain, Maxime, Rossi, Luiz Marcelo Brum, Spironello, Wilson Roberto, Rovero, Francesco, Saner, Philippe, Schulze, Mark, Silveira, Marcos, Singh, James, Sist, Plinio, Sonke, Bonaventure, Sullivan, Martin J. P., Swanepoel, Ben, ter Steege, Hans, Valencia, Renato, Valenzuela, Luis, Ferreira, Leandro Valle, Valverde, Fernando Cornejo, Van Andel, Tinde R., Verbeeck, Hans, Vivek, Pandi, Vleminckx, Jason, Wagner, Fabien H., Papi Puspa, Warsudi, Wortel, Verginia, Zagt, Roderick J., Zebaze, Donatien
Format:	Journal Article Web Resource
Language:	English
Published:	Oxford Wiley 01-11-2018 Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
Subjects:	Agricultural sciences Airborne observation Biomass Calibration carbon Climate change Communities Density Dependence Environmental changes Environmental sciences & ecology Forest ecosystems forest structure Forests Inventories Inventory management large trees Life Sciences pan‐tropical Predictions REDD Remote sensing Research Papers Sciences de l’environnement & écologie Sciences du vivant Silviculture, forestry Space missions Terrestrial ecosystems Trees Tropical environments tropical forest ecology Tropical forests Wood Woody plants forest structure REDD carbon large trees tropical forest ecology pan-tropical climate change
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Summary:	Aim Large tropical trees form the interface between ground and airborne observations, offering a unique opportunity to capture forest properties remotely and to investigate their variations on broad scales. However, despite rapid development of metrics to characterize the forest canopy from remotely sensed data, a gap remains between aerial and field inventories. To close this gap, we propose a new pan‐tropical model to predict plot‐level forest structure properties and biomass from only the largest trees. Location Pan‐tropical. Time period Early 21st century. Major taxa studied Woody plants. Methods Using a dataset of 867 plots distributed among 118 sites across the tropics, we tested the prediction of the quadratic mean diameter, basal area, Lorey's height, community wood density and aboveground biomass (AGB) from the ith largest trees. Results Measuring the largest trees in tropical forests enables unbiased predictions of plot‐ and site‐level forest structure. The 20 largest trees per hectare predicted quadratic mean diameter, basal area, Lorey's height, community wood density and AGB with 12, 16, 4, 4 and 17.7% of relative error, respectively. Most of the remaining error in biomass prediction is driven by differences in the proportion of total biomass held in medium‐sized trees (50–70 cm diameter at breast height), which shows some continental dependency, with American tropical forests presenting the highest proportion of total biomass in these intermediate‐diameter classes relative to other continents. Main conclusions Our approach provides new information on tropical forest structure and can be used to generate accurate field estimates of tropical forest carbon stocks to support the calibration and validation of current and forthcoming space missions. It will reduce the cost of field inventories and contribute to scientific understanding of tropical forest ecosystems and response to climate change.
Bibliography:	scopus-id:2-s2.0-85054871795
ISSN:	1466-822X 1466-8238 1466-8238 1466-822X
DOI:	10.1111/geb.12803