Integrating field data and remote sensing to study secondary forests in Amazonian rural settlements Mateus Batistella Embrapa Satellite Monitoring/ Indiana University-ACT LBA LC-09
LC-09 Study Sites
Machadinho d’Oeste and Vale do Anari in the State of Rondônia
1 m 2 9 m m 2 Herbs and Seedlings Shrubs and saplings Trees DBH > 10 cm Height Stem Height No. of individuals cm Height No. of individuals Ground cover No. of individuals Nested squares for vegetation sampling
Analytical Criteria Vegetation sampling Spectral data extraction DBHHeight Stem height Number of individuals Basal area Density Biomass Spectral curves SeparabilityContingency Statistical Analysis Database Plot samples Vegetation structure analysis Spectral analysis Integration of vegetation structure and spectral data analysis
Relationships between database tables
MeanS.D.Min.Max. Density of trees (individuals/ha) Density of saplings (individuals/ha) Density of saplings / density of trees DBH of trees (cm) DBH of saplings (cm) Basal area of trees (m 2 /ha) Basal area of saplings (m 2 /ha) Total basal area (m 2 /ha) Percent tree contribution to total basal area Percent sapling contribution to total basal area Total height of trees (m) Total height of saplings (m) Stem height of trees (m) Biomass of trees (t/ha) Biomass of saplings (t/ha) Total biomass (t/ha)
MeanS.D.Min.Max. Density of trees (individuals/ha) Density of saplings (individuals/ha) Density of saplings / density of trees DBH of trees (cm) DBH of saplings (cm) Basal area of trees (m 2 /ha) Basal area of saplings (m 2 /ha) Total basal area (m 2 /ha) Percent tree contribution to total basal area Percent sapling contribution to total basal area Total height of trees (m) Total height of saplings (m) Stem height of trees (m) Biomass of trees (t/ha) Biomass of saplings (t/ha) Total biomass (t/ha)
MeanS.D.Min.Max. Density of trees (individuals/ha) Density of saplings (individuals/ha) Density of saplings / density of trees DBH of trees (cm) DBH of saplings (cm) Basal area of trees (m 2 /ha) Basal area of saplings (m 2 /ha) Total basal area (m 2 /ha) Percent tree contribution to total basal area Percent sapling contribution to total basal area Total height of trees (m) Total height of saplings (m) Stem height of trees (m) Biomass of trees (t/ha) Biomass of saplings (t/ha) Total biomass (t/ha)
MeanS.D.Min.Max. Density of trees (individuals/ha) Density of saplings (individuals/ha) Density of saplings / density of trees DBH of trees (cm) DBH of saplings (cm) Basal area of trees (m 2 /ha) Basal area of saplings (m 2 /ha) Total basal area (m 2 /ha) Percent tree contribution to total basal area Percent sapling contribution to total basal area Total height of trees (m) Total height of saplings (m) Stem height of trees (m) Biomass of trees (t/ha) Biomass of saplings (t/ha) Total biomass (t/ha)
Findings for vegetation parameters DBH, basal area, height, and biomass of trees and saplings increase from SS1 up to forest. As also expected, there are overlaps between minimum and maximum values The density of trees increases from SS1 to SS3, but decreases at forest sites. Dominant species at SS3 (e.g., Cecropia sp.) die off during the transition to forest. Also, at the forest community, trees continue to grow in DBH and height but the number of individuals decrease. The trend for density of saplings is the opposite. It constantly decreases from initial stages of regrowth up to forest indicating the importance of trees in more advanced recovery stages
Spectral curves for each group of plot samples
Vegetation StructureSpectral Responses
Conclusions SS1, SS2, SS3, and forest plots were well separated when using solely the data for vegetation structure (p<0.001) Analyses of reflectance on selected TM bands allowed the separation of only three of these classes (SS1 and SS2 mixed together, SS3, and forest). Vegetation structure is a better indicator than age for the discrimination of secondary succession stages
Ground cover data can provide useful information for secondary forest classification, particularly as a support for spectral mixture analysis Hypothesis to be tested Dar, what do you think?