Resilience of S.E. Asian tropical forests to disturbance

Resilience of S.E. Asian tropical forests to disturbance

Mark Cutler & Chris Philipson (Dundee) Giles Foody, Doreen Boyd, Liam Clark & Geertje van der Heijden (Nottingham) David Burslem (Aberdeen)

3 month running mean of ERSST.v4 SST anomalies in the NiĂąo 3.4 region 2.5 2

Oceanic Nino Index (ONI)

1.5 1

0.5 0 -0.5 -1 -1.5 -2

Year

Source: nws.noaa

Critical questions Our current research programme seeks to address: – What impact does the intensity of prior disturbance and post management strategies have upon the resilience forests?

– What evidence is there of the impact of the current ENSO upon forests across a disturbance gradient?

– What are the most effective remote sensing tools for assessing the impacts of forest response to disturbance at local to regional scales?

• Addressed by two projects: – Spatio-TEmporal Dynamics of Forest Response to ENSO Drought (STEED) – Changing species diversity & biomass accumulation in conserved and regenerating tropical forests: 2 decades on.

Mg ha-1

Mg ha-1

In situ forest plot measurements: Change in AGB (Mg ha-1) 1996-2015

400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 1996

2015

350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 1996

2015

400 350 300

ha-1

250

200

Mg

200

Mg

ha-1

150

150 100

100

50

50

0 1996

2015

0 1996

2015 250

Mg ha-1

200

DBH classes

100 50 0

>40cm 20-30cm 10-20cm

500

1996

400

Mg ha-1

AGB derived from allometric equations in Chave et al., 2014

150

300 200

100 0 1996

2015

2015

Research Programme • Original census of plots 1996. Re-survey 2014-16 • Revisit network of forest plots to record (in situ) changes in leaf traits, spectral response & canopy structure, mortality: – Repeated trait campaign (BALI + Oct 2016; July 2017) – Drone survey of lianas (June 2016; April 2017)

• Acquire remotely sensed data to map impacts across landscape / regional scales (pre- and post- drought) – – – –

WorldView-3 satellite imagery (11/15; 08/16; 07/17) Hyperspectral airborne imagery (10/14; 04/16??)

Sentinel-2 / Landsat OLI NOAA AVHRR /MODIS regional GPP / drought index

Research Programme • Original census of plots 1996. Re-survey 2014-16 • Revisit network of forest plots to record (in situ) changes in leaf traits, spectral response & canopy structure, mortality: – Repeated trait campaign (BALI + Oct 2016; July 2017)

• Acquire remotely sensed data to map impacts across landscape / regional scales (pre- and post- drought) – Drone survey of lianas (June 2016; April 2017) – WorldView-3 satellite imagery (11/15; 08/16; 07/17)

Drone images of forest canopy at DVFC – July 2016 (Catherine Waite, UoN)

Tree census: • RAINFOR methodology • Including CII: modified form of Dawkins Index (Dawkins, 1958) Tree Crown Georeferencing: • Ipad & Bluetooth-enabled GPS/GLONASS receiver • iGIS application

November 2015

August 2016

WorldView-3 satellite imagery (colour composite) – Danum Valley

STEED Work Programme • Original census of plots 1996. Re-survey 2014-16 • Revisit network of forest plots to record (in situ) changes in leaf traits, spectral response & canopy structure, mortality: – Repeated trait campaign (BALI + Oct 2016; July 2017)

• Acquire remotely sensed data to map impacts across landscape / regional scales (pre- and post- drought) – – – – –

Drone survey of lianas (June 2016; April 2017) WorldView-3 satellite imagery (11/15; 08/16; 07/17) Hyperspectral airborne imagery (10/14; 04/16??)

Sentinel-2 / Landsat OLI NOAA AVHRR /MODIS regional GPP / drought index

Progress……

• Data collection: – – – –

20 yr plot inventory completed First liana / canopy structure survey completed First leaf trait campaign completed First (of 2 more) WorldView-3 satellite images acquired

• Project blog / webpages: – https://blog.dundee.ac.uk/cechrsphere/category/steed/

Acknowledgements A big thanks to our SEARRP RA and field team

Funding from: