Journal Article

Lidar remote sensing of above-ground biomass in three biomes

Lefsky, Michael A., Cohen, Warren B., Parker, Geoffrey G., Acker, Steven A., Gower, S. Thomas, Harding, David J.

2002

Overview

Estimation of the amount of carbon stored in forests is a key challenge for understanding the global carbon cycle, one which remote sensing is expected to help address. However, estimation of carbon storage in moderate to high biomass forests is difficult for conventional optical and radar sensors. Lidar (light detection and ranging) instruments measure the vertical structure of forests and thus hold great promise for remotely sensing the quantity and spatial organization of forest biomass. In this study, we compare the relationships between lidar-measured canopy structure and coincident field measurements of above-ground biomass at sites in the temperate deciduous, temperate coniferous, and boreal coniferous biomes. A single regression for all three sites is compared with equations derived for each site individually. The single equation explains 84% of variance in above-ground biomass (P < 0.0001) and shows no statistically significant bias in its predictions for any individual site.

• Publisher: Blackwell Science Ltd,Blackwell Publishing,Blackwell
• Subject: above-ground biomass / Aboveground biomass / Animal, plant and microbial ecology / Biological and medical sciences / Biomass / biomass measurement / Boreal forests / Carbon sequestration / carbon storage / Coniferous forests / Deciduous forests / forest biomass / Forest canopy / Forest ecology / Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology / General aspects. Techniques / global carbon cycle / interbiome comparison / lidar remote sensing / Remote sensing / Research Letters / SLICER sensor / Teledetection and vegetation maps / Waveforms