The role of remote sensing in process-scaling studies of managed forest ecosystems

Journal Article · Wed Jun 24 04:00:00 EDT 2015 · Forest Ecology and Management

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2015.05.032· OSTI ID:1335324

Masek, Jeffrey ^[1]; Hayes, Daniel J. ^[2]; Hughes, Michael J. ^[3]; Healey, Sean P. ^[4]; Turner, David P. ^[5]

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1. NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, MD (United States)
2. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
3. Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States)
4. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Robbinsville, SC (United States). United States Forest Service (USFS)
5. Oregon State Univ., Corvallis, OR (United States)

Sustaining forest resources requires a better understanding of forest ecosystem processes, and how management decisions and climate change may affect these processes in the future. While plot and inventory data provide our most detailed information on forest carbon, energy, and water cycling, applying this understanding to broader spatial and temporal domains requires scaling approaches. Remote sensing provides a powerful resource for "upscaling" process understanding to regional and continental domains. The increased range of available remote sensing modalities, including interferometric radar, lidar, and hyperspectral imagery, allows the retrieval of a broad range of forest attributes. This paper reviews the application of remote sensing for upscaling forest attributes from the plot scale to regional domains, with particular emphasis on how remote sensing products can support parameterization and validation of ecosystem process models. We focus on four key ecological attributes of forests: composition, structure, productivity and evapotranspiration, and disturbance dynamics. For each attribute, we discuss relevant remote sensing technologies, provide examples of their application, and critically evaluate both strengths and challenges associated with their use. Published by Elsevier B.V.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1335324
• Journal Information: Forest Ecology and Management, Journal Name: Forest Ecology and Management Vol. 355; ISSN 0378-1127
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
BIOMASS ESTIMATION
CARBON-CYCLE
FIRE SEVERITY
Forest ecology
GLOBAL VEGETATION
LANDSAT TIME-SERIES
LIGHT-USE EFFICIENCY
NEAREST-NEIGHBOR IMPUTATION
NET PRIMARY PRODUCTION
PHOTOCHEMICAL REFLECTANCE INDEX
Remote sensing
SATELLITE DATA
Scaling