An above-ground biomass map of African savannahs and woodlands at 25 m resolution derived from ALOS PALSAR

Bouvet, Alexandre; Mermoz, Stéphane; Toan, Thuy Le; Villard, Ludovic; Mathieu, Renaud; Naidoo, Laven; Asner, Gregory P.

doi:10.1016/j.rse.2017.12.030

Cited by 196 publications

(182 citation statements)

References 69 publications

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“…However, to the best of our knowledge, there has not yet been an empirical study on the quantitative changes to the vegetation patterns, linking these to pattern properties such as a pattern's regularity. That said, at this moment, it should be possible to perform such studies, using for example the pattern wavelength and techniques previously used on these systems in Deblauwe et al (); Couteron (); Barbier et al (); Penny et al (); Bouvet et al (); Bastiaansen et al ().…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of climate change on the resilience of ecosystems with adaptive spatial pattern formation

et al. 2020

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In a rapidly changing world, quantifying ecosystem resilience is an important challenge. Historically, resilience has been defined via models that do not take spatial effects into account. These systems can only adapt via uniform adjustments. In reality, however, the response is not necessarily uniform, and can lead to the formation of (self-organised) spatial patternstypically localised vegetation patches. Classical measures of resilience cannot capture the emerging dynamics in spatially self-organised systems, including transitions between patterned states that have limited impact on ecosystem structure and productivity. We present a framework of interlinked phase portraits that appropriately quantifies the resilience of patterned states, which depends on the number of patches, the distances between them and environmental conditions. We show how classical resilience concepts fail to distinguish between small and large pattern transitions, and find that the variance in interpatch distances provides a suitable indicator for the type of imminent transition. Subsequently, we describe the dependency of ecosystem degradation based on the rate of climatic change: slow change leads to sporadic, large transitions, whereas fast change causes a rapid sequence of smaller transitions. Finally, we discuss how pre-emptive removal of patches can minimise productivity losses during pattern transitions, constituting a viable conservation strategy.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effect of climate change on the resilience of ecosystems with adaptive spatial pattern formation

et al. 2020

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“…Indeed, savannahs are increasingly becoming recognized for their essential ecosystem services, including the provisioning of water, production of livestock forage and carbon storage, the last of which is comparable to that of forests when AGB and BGB are considered (Overbeck et al 2015). Recognition of these ecosystem services is particularly relevant in Africa, where savannahs account for approximately half of the total aboveground carbon (Bouvet et al 2018). Nonetheless, savannahs are currently impacted by anthropogenic activities including afforestation and deforestation.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We also discuss the implications of the various NFD choices. To do so, we use the first published AGB 2010 map of African savannahs at a high resolution (25 m) from Bouvet et al (2018), fully adapted to this study, and the global TC 2010 and TC loss 2000-2016 maps at a 30 m resolution from Hansen et al (2013). Table 1 summarizes the total surface and the proportion in savannahs; the minimum TC, MMU and minimum H values chosen for the NFD; national AGB stocks and the proportion of AGB stocks below the respective TC values; national TC loss from 2001 to 2016 and the proportion of TC loss below the respective TC values; and REDD+ activities, as described in UNFCCC FREL, for each country.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Among these 11 countries, Table 1. For each of the 30 African REDD+ and/or UN-REDD partner countries: total surface, proportion in savannahs, national definition of forest (minimum tree cover TC; mapping unit, MMU; and height), total aboveground biomass stocks from the Bouvet et al (2018) map, proportion of biomass stocks in areas considered to be non-forest areas, national tree cover loss from 2001 to 2016, proportion of tree cover loss below the respective tree cover values when using the tree cover map from Hansen et al (2013), and REDD+ activities as described in UNFCCC FREL (D means deforestation, DD deforestation and forest degradation, + enhancement and/or conservation of forest carbon stocks and/or sustainable management of forest) Table 1 shows that at least 20% of national AGB stocks are located in areas considered to be non-forest areas in 11 out of 20 countries that have official NFDs. Six of these 11 countries exhibit a proportion of national TC loss equal to or higher than 15% in non-forest areas.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Impacts of the forest definitions adopted by African countries on carbon conservation

Mermoz

Bouvet

Toan

et al. 2018

Environ. Res. Lett.

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In this paper, we aim to assess the impacts of the forest definitions adopted by each African country involved in the global climate change programmes of the United Nations on national carbon emission estimations. To do so, we estimate the proportion of national carbon stocks and tree cover loss that are found in areas considered to be non-forest areas. These non-forest areas are defined with respect to a threshold on the percentage of tree cover adopted by each country. Using percent tree cover and aboveground biomass maps derived from remote sensing data, we quantitatively show that in many countries, a large proportion of carbon stocks are found in non-forest areas, where a large amount of tree cover loss can also occur. We further found that under the REDD+ framework (reduced deforestation, reduced degradation, enhancement and conservation of forest carbon stocks, sustainable management of forests), some partner countries have proposed activities related to only reducing deforestation, even when a large proportion of their carbon stocks are stored outside forests. This situation may represent a limitation of the efficiency of the REDD+ mechanism, and could be avoided if these countries choose a lower tree cover threshold for their definition of forests and/or if they are engaged in other activities.

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“…where AGB y is the total AGB extracted in a given year y; Fdeg y is the annual forest degradation extent; agb y is the sum of standing AGB in the degraded forest extracted fromBouvet et al (2018) and, ER is the AGB extraction rate obtained from field measurements. Similarly, CE y corresponds to the annual gross carbon emissions in a certain year and CF is the default carbon fraction of dry matter(Penman et al 2003) (see supplementary materials).…”

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confidence: 99%

Monitoring forest degradation from charcoal production with historical Landsat imagery. A case study in southern Mozambique

Sedano

Lisboa²,

Duncanson

et al. 2020

Environ. Res. Lett.

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We used historical Landsat imagery to monitor forest degradation from charcoal production in the main supplying region of the Mozambican capital, Maputo, during a ten-year period (2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016)(2017)(2018). We applied a change detection method that exploits temporal NDVI dynamics associated with charcoal production. This forest degradation temporal sequence exposes the magnitude and the spatial and temporal dynamics of charcoal production, which is the main forest degradation driver in sub-Saharan Africa. The annual area under charcoal production has been steadily increasing since 2008 and reached 11 673 ha in 2018. The total forest degraded extent in the study area during the 10year study period covered 79 630 ha, which represents 68% of the available mopane woodlands in 2008. Only 5% of the available mopane woodlands area remain undisturbed in the study area. Total gross carbon emissions associated charcoal production during this 10-year period were estimated in 1.13 Mt. These results mark forest degradation from charcoal production as the main driver of forest cover change in southern Mozambique. They also denote that, while charcoal production may be relatively localized in space, its implications for forest cover change and carbon emissions in a sub-Saharan African context are relevant at larger geographical scales. This study represents a proof of concept of the feasibility of medium resolution Earth observation data to monitor forest degradation from charcoal production in the context of the growing urban energy demand. It also highlights the potential opportunities to improve REDD+monitoring, reporting and verification efforts in sub-Saharan Africa as a first step toward designing effective management and policy interventions.

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An above-ground biomass map of African savannahs and woodlands at 25 m resolution derived from ALOS PALSAR

Cited by 196 publications

References 69 publications

The effect of climate change on the resilience of ecosystems with adaptive spatial pattern formation

The effect of climate change on the resilience of ecosystems with adaptive spatial pattern formation

Impacts of the forest definitions adopted by African countries on carbon conservation

Monitoring forest degradation from charcoal production with historical Landsat imagery. A case study in southern Mozambique

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