Combining satellite and field data reveals Congo's forest types structure, functioning and composition

作者：Juliette Picard, Maïalicah M. Nungi‐Pambu Dembi, Nicolas Barbier, Guillaume Cornu, Pierre Couteron, Éric Forni, Gwili E. M. Gibbon, Felix K. S. Lim, Pierre Ploton, Robin Pouteau, Paul Tresson, Tom van Loon, Gaëlle Viennois, Maxime Réjou‐Méchain · 发表于：Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation · 年份：2024 · DOI：10.1002/rse2.419 · 被引用次数：10 · 研究领域：Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies、Species Distribution and Climate Change、African Botany and Ecology Studies

Abstract Tropical moist forests are not the homogeneous green carpet often illustrated in maps or considered by global models. They harbour a complex mixture of forest types organized at different spatial scales that can now be more accurately mapped thanks to remote sensing products and artificial intelligence. In this study, we built a large‐scale vegetation map of the North of Congo and assessed the environmental drivers of the main forest types, their forest structure, their floristic and functional compositions and their faunistic composition. To build the map, we used Sentinel‐2 satellite images and recent deep learning architectures. We tested the effect of topographically determined water availability on vegetation type distribution by linking the map with a water drainage depth proxy (HAND, height above the nearest drainage index). We also described vegetation type structure and composition (floristic, functional and associated fauna) by linking the map with data from large inventories and derived from satellite images. We found that water drainage depth is a major driver of forest type distribution and that the different forest types are characterized by different structure, composition and functions, bringing new insights about their origins and successional dynamics. We discuss not only the crucial role of soil–water depth, but also the importance of consistently reproducing such maps through time to develop an accurate monitoring of tropical forest types and func...