Disturbance has variable effects on the structural complexity of a temperate forest landscape

Gough, Christopher M.; Atkins, Jeff W.; Fahey, Robert T.; Bohrer, Gil; Hardiman, Brady S.; Hickey, Laura J.; Nave, Lucas E.; Niedermaier, Kerstin M.; Clay, Cameron; Tallant, Jason; Bond‐Lamberty, Ben

doi:10.1016/j.ecolind.2022.109004

Cited by 10 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 74 publications

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“…Apart from solely using LiDAR data, its fusion with other active remote sensing data has led to the development of new techniques for the analysis of ecosystem structure (Valbuena et al, 2020), LiDAR has already been shown to provide useful proxies to show these effects (Gough et al, 2022). This also applies for fire, in both the forms of wildfire and prescribed burning.…”

Section: F I G U R Ementioning

confidence: 99%

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Towards complex applications of active remote sensing for ecology and conservation

2023

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Remote sensing (RS) and geospatial sciences already amount to a long history of fostering research in topics related to ecology. Data and methods have mainly been subject to research and experiments, but trends are now emerging that suggest the use of RS in practical applications like nationwide monitoring programs and assisting global conservation goals. However, use of active remote sensing for ecological and conservation is in its infancy, and the implications of active sensor data, including light detection and ranging and radio detection and ranging that mostly deliver three‐dimensional (3D) information, are still relatively primitive and have largely been limited to indirect use of their extracted proxies for ecological modelling. This cross‐journal special feature between Methods in Ecology and Evolution, Journal of Animal Ecology, Journal of Applied Ecology and Journal of Ecology includes 18 papers that include full research papers, reviews and technical applications. They are mostly novel in either or both their interpretation of proxies derived from active RS data and the direct usage of 3D RS techniques (terrestrial, airborne, UAV borne and spaceborne) to address ecological topics. We categorized the published contributions into the following thematic groups, with some degree of overlap: (i) ecosystem structural analysis by active data (nine studies); (ii) response of animal populations to climate dynamics as shown by active data; (iii) interactive effects of forest structure and wildlife monitoring (five studies); (iv) forest inventories assisted by active data (one study) and (v) tree type classification by active data (one study). Synthesis. The studies in this Special Feature and trends shown by other recent works at the interface of ecology and active RS confirm the ongoing shift from indirect and solely proxy‐based approaches to direct and more data‐science driven methods in approaching ecology and conservation problems by means of active sensors. Relatively affordable and accessible drone and citizen science‐based on‐demand active RS data acquisition are becoming common practice, and the future of sensor development is hypothesized to go beyond the current domination of very high spatial resolution data and towards multiple spaceborne platforms. These tools and methods will support spatial upscaling, uncertainty analysis, large‐scale mapping and monitoring of wildlife dynamics, among other topics that can take advantage of multitemporal/time series data. Nevertheless, access to demanding and costly very high‐resolution data sources may still be maintained and optimized by establishing international and public–private partnered data pools.

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Section: F I G U R Ementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Another important research line is on the study of how ecosystem disturbances affect vegetation structure (Bowd et al, 2021); LiDAR has already been shown to provide useful proxies to show these effects (Gough et al, 2022). This also applies for fire, in both the forms of wildfire and prescribed burning.…”

Section: Thematic Groups Being Covered In the Sfmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards complex applications of active remote sensing for ecology and conservation

2023

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“…three‐dimensional canopy architecture) can influence ecosystem resistance to moderate severity disturbances (Hardiman et al, 2013). Together, these factors can impact the changes in canopy structures (Gough et al, 2022; Millar & Stephenson, 2015) and determine the response pathways of post‐disturbance reorganization such as reassembly, restructuring and replacement (Seidl & Turner, 2022).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Short‐term effects of moderate severity disturbances on forest canopy structure

et al. 2023

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Moderate severity disturbances, those that do not result in stand replacement, play an essential role in ecosystem dynamics. Despite the prevalence of moderate severity disturbances and the significant impacts they impose on forest functioning, little is known about their effects on forest canopy structure and how these effects differ over time across a range of disturbance severities and disturbance types. Using longitudinal data from the National Ecological Observatory Network project, we assessed the effects of three moderate severity press disturbances (beech bark disease, hemlock woolly adelgid and emerald ash borer, which are characterized by continuous disturbance and sustained mortality) and three moderate severity pulse disturbances (spring cankerworm moth, spongy moth and ground fire, which are associated with discrete and relatively short mortalities) on temperate forest canopy structure in eastern US. We studied (1) how light detection and ranging (LiDAR)‐derived metrics of canopy structure change in response to disturbance and (2) whether initial canopy complexity offsets impact of disturbances on canopy structure over time. We used a mixed‐effects modelling framework which included a non‐linear term for time to represent changes in canopy structure caused by disturbance, and interactions between time and both disturbance intensity and initial canopy complexity. We discovered that high intensity of both press and pulse disturbances inhibited canopy height growth while low intensity pulse disturbances facilitated it. In addition, high intensity pulse disturbances facilitated increases in the complexity of the canopy over time. Concerning the impact of initial canopy complexity, we found that the initial canopy complexity of disturbed plots altered the effects of moderate disturbances, indicating potential resilience effects. Synthesis. This study used repeated measurements of LiDAR data to examine the effects of moderate disturbances on various dimensions of forest canopy structure, including height, openness, density and complexity. Our study indicates that both press and pulse disturbances can inhibit canopy height growth over time. However, while the impact of press disturbances on other dimensions of canopy structure could not be clearly detected, likely because of compensatory growth, the impact of pulse disturbances over time was more readily apparent using multi‐temporal LiDAR data. Furthermore, our findings suggest that canopy complexity might help to mitigate the impact of moderate disturbances on canopy structures over time. Overall, our research highlights the usefulness of multi‐temporal LiDAR data for assessing the structural changes in forest canopies caused by moderate severity disturbances.

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Robust retrieval of forest canopy structural attributes using multi‐platform airborne LiDAR

Zhang,

Fischer,

Prober

et al. 2024

Remote Sens Ecol Conserv

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LiDAR data acquired from airplanes and helicopters – known as airborne laser scanning (ALS) – are widely regarded as the gold standard for characterizing the 3D structure of forests at scale. But in the last decade, advances in unoccupied aerial vehicle (UAV) technologies have led to a rapid rise in the use of UAV laser scanning (ULS) for mapping forest structure. As both ALS and ULS data become increasingly available, they are being used to derive an ever‐growing number of metrics designed to measure different facets of canopy structure. However, which metrics can be robustly retrieved from both ALS and ULS platforms remains unclear. To address this question, we acquired coincident, high‐density ALS and ULS scans covering 115 plots (4‐ha in size) in an open‐canopy temperate ecosystem in Western Australia. Using this unique dataset, we quantified 32 canopy structural metrics related to canopy height, openness and heterogeneity, including metrics calculated directly from the point clouds and ones measured from derived canopy height models (CHM). Overall, we found that ALS and ULS‐derived metrics were strongly correlated (r2 = 0.90). However, this high degree of correlation masked considerable systematic differences between platforms. Specifically, point cloud metrics were less strongly (r2 = 0.87) correlated and had higher bias (10.7%) compared to CHM‐derived ones (r2 = 0.98; bias = 2.5%). Similarly, metrics of canopy openness and heterogeneity were less strongly correlated (r2 = 0.84 and 0.87) and exhibited greater bias (14.4 and 7.9%) than ones relating to canopy height (r2 = 0.96; bias = 3.8%). Our results indicate that only a small subset of the 32 metrics we tested were directly comparable between ALS and ULS platforms. Consequently, future efforts to combine laser scanning data across platforms and instruments should think carefully about which metrics are most appropriate, especially when working with point cloud data.

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Disturbance has variable effects on the structural complexity of a temperate forest landscape

Cited by 10 publications

References 74 publications

Towards complex applications of active remote sensing for ecology and conservation

Towards complex applications of active remote sensing for ecology and conservation

Short‐term effects of moderate severity disturbances on forest canopy structure

Robust retrieval of forest canopy structural attributes using multi‐platform airborne LiDAR

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