Liana canopy cover mapped throughout a tropical forest with high-fidelity imaging spectroscopy

Authors

David C. Marvin, Carnegie Institution for Science
Gregory P. Asner, Carnegie Institution for ScienceFollow
Stefan A. Schnitzer, Marquette UniversityFollow

Document Type

Article

Language

eng

Publication Date

4-2016

Publisher

Elsevier

Source Publication

Remote Sensing of the Environment

Source ISSN

0034-4257

Abstract

Increasing size and abundance of lianas relative to trees are pervasive changes in Neotropical forests that may lead to reduced forest carbon stocks. Yet the liana growth form is chronically understudied in large-scale tropical forest censuses, resulting in few data on the scale, cause, and impact of increasing lianas. Satellite and airborne remote sensing provide potential tools to map and monitor lianas at much larger spatial and rapid temporal scales than are possible with plot-based forest censuses. We combined high-resolution airborne imaging spectroscopy and a ground-based tree canopy census to investigate whether tree canopies supporting lianas could be discriminated from tree canopies with no liana coverage. Using support vector machine algorithms, we achieved accuracies of nearly 90% in discriminating the presence–absence of lianas, and low error (15.7% RMSE) when predicting liana percent canopy cover. When applied to the full image of the study site, our model had a 4.1% false-positive error rate as validated against an independent plot-level dataset of liana canopy cover. Using the derived liana cover classification map, we show that 6.1%–10.2% of the 1823 ha study site has high-to-severe (50–100%) liana canopy cover. Given that levels of liana infestation are increasing in Neotropical forests and can result in high tree mortality, the extent of high-to-severe liana canopy cover across the landscape may have broad implications for ecosystem function and forest carbon storage. The ability to accurately map landscape-scale liana infestation is crucial to quantifying their effects on forest function and uncovering the mechanisms underlying their increase.

Comments

Accepted version. Remote Sensing of the Environment, Vol. 176, (April, 2016): 98-106. DOI. © 2016 Elsevier. Used with permission.

Recommended Citation

Marvin, David C.; Asner, Gregory P.; and Schnitzer, Stefan A., "Liana canopy cover mapped throughout a tropical forest with high-fidelity imaging spectroscopy" (2016). Biological Sciences Faculty Research and Publications. 717.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/bio_fac/717