Forestry

Predicting Forest Cover in Distinct Ecosystems: The Potential of Multi-Source Sentinel-1 and -2 Data Fusion

The fusion of microwave and optical data sets is expected to provide great potential for the derivation of forest cover around the globe. As Sentinel-1 and Sentinel-2 are now both operating in twin mode, they can provide an unprecedented data source …

An Adaptable Approach for Pixel-Based Compositing and Crop Type/Tree Species Mapping

We present a novel approach for detailed crop type and tree species classification exploiting high spatio-temporal resolution Sentinel-2A data. Here, we address the challenge of frequent cloud coverage in satellite observations by defining, purely …

Quality Assessment of Terrestrial Laser Scanner Ecosystem Observations Using Pulse Trajectories

Considering the trajectories of pulses from terrestrial laser scanners (TLS) can provide refined models of occlusion and improve the assessment of observation quality in forests and other ecosystems. By considering the space traversed by light …

When Tree Rings Go Global: Challenges and Opportunities for Retro- and Prospective Insight

The demand for large-scale and long-term information on tree growth is increasing rapidly as environmental change research strives to quantify and forecast the impacts of continued warming on forest ecosystems. This demand, combined with the now …

Contrasting and Interacting Changes in Simulated Spring and Summer Carbon Cycle Extremes in European Ecosystems

Climate extremes have the potential to cause extreme responses of terrestrial ecosystem functioning. However, it is neither straightforward to quantify and predict extreme ecosystem responses, nor to attribute these responses to specific climate …

Finding Leaves in the Forest: The Dual-Wavelength Echidna Lidar

The dual-wavelength Echidna lidar is a portable ground-based full-waveform terrestrial scanning lidar for characterization of fine-scale forest structure and biomass content. While scanning, the instrument records the full time series of returns at a …

Joint Use of ICESat/GLAS and Landsat Data in Land Cover Classification: A Case Study in Henan Province, China

Lidar waveform features from the Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite/Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (ICESat/GLAS) and spectral features from Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM)/Enhanced TM Plus (ETM+) were used to discriminate land cover categories …

A Few Extreme Events Dominate Global Interannual Variability in Gross Primary Production

Understanding the impacts of climate extremes on the carbon cycle is important for quantifying the carbon-cycle climate feedback and highly relevant to climate change assessments. Climate extremes and fires can have severe regional effects, but a …

Carbon Cycle Extremes during the 21st Century in CMIP5 Models: Future Evolution and Attribution to Climatic Drivers

Climate extremes such as droughts and heat waves affect terrestrial ecosystems and may alter local carbon budgets. However, it still remains uncertain to what degree extreme impacts in the carbon cycle influence the carbon cycle-climate feedback both …

Impact of Large-Scale Climate Extremes on Biospheric Carbon Fluxes: An Intercomparison Based on MsTMIP Data

Understanding the role of climate extremes and their impact on the carbon (C) cycle is increasingly a focus of Earth system science. Climate extremes such as droughts, heat waves, or heavy precipitation events can cause substantial changes in …