The Forest Observation System, building a global reference dataset for remote sensing of forest biomass

Dmitry Schepaschenko* (Corresponding Author), Jérôme Chave, Oliver L Phillips, Simon L Lewis, Stuart J Davies, Maxime Réjou-Méchain, Plinio Sist, Klaus Scipal, Christoph Perger, Bruno Herault, Nicolas Labrière, Florian Hofhansl, Kofi Affum-Baffoe, Alexei Aleinikov, Alfonso Alonso, Christian Amani, Alejandro Araujo-Murakami, John Armston, Luzmila Arroyo, Nataly AscarrunzCelso Azevedo, Timothy Baker, Radomir Bałazy, Caroline Bedeau, Nicholas Berry, Andrii M Bilous, Svitlana Yu Bilous, Pulchérie Bissiengou, Lilian Blanc, Kapitolina S Bobkova, Tatyana Braslavskaya, Roel Brienen, David F R P Burslem, Richard Condit, Aida Cuni-Sanchez, Dilshad Danilina, Dennis Del Castillo Torres, Géraldine Derroire, Laurent Descroix, Eleneide Doff Sotta, Marcus V N d'Oliveira, Christopher Dresel, Terry Erwin, Mikhail D Evdokimenko, Jan Falck, Ted R Feldpausch, Ernest G Foli, Robin Foster, Steffen Fritz, Antonio Damian Garcia-Abril, Aleksey Gornov, Maria Gornova, Ernest Gothard-Bassébé, Sylvie Gourlet-Fleury, Marcelino Guedes, Keith C Hamer, Farida Herry Susanty, Niro Higuchi, Eurídice N Honorio Coronado, Wannes Hubau, Stephen Hubbell, Ulrik Ilstedt, Viktor V Ivanov, Milton Kanashiro, Anders Karlsson, Viktor N Karminov, Timothy Killeen, Jean-Claude Konan Koffi, Maria Konovalova, Florian Kraxner, Jan Krejza, Haruni Krisnawati, Leonid V Krivobokov, Mikhail A Kuznetsov, Ivan Lakyda, Petro I Lakyda, Juan Carlos Licona, Richard M Lucas, Natalia Lukina, Daniel Lussetti, Yadvinder Malhi, José Antonio Manzanera, Beatriz Marimon, Ben Hur Marimon Junior, Rodolfo Vasquez Martinez, Olga V Martynenko, Maksym Matsala, Raisa K Matyashuk, Lucas Mazzei, Hervé Memiaghe, Casimiro Mendoza, Abel Monteagudo Mendoza, Olga V Moroziuk, Liudmila Mukhortova, Samsudin Musa, Dina I Nazimova, Toshinori Okuda, Luis Claudio Oliveira, Petr V Ontikov, Andrey F Osipov, Stephan Pietsch, Maureen Playfair, John Poulsen, Vladimir G Radchenko, Kenneth Rodney, Andes H Rozak, Ademir Ruschel, Ervan Rutishauser, Linda See, Maria Shchepashchenko, Nikolay Shevchenko, Anatoly Shvidenko, Marcos Silveira, James Singh, Bonaventure Sonké, Cintia Souza, Krzysztof Stereńczak, Leonid Stonozhenko, Martin J P Sullivan, Justyna Szatniewska, Hermann Taedoumg, Hans Ter Steege, Elena Tikhonova, Marisol Toledo, Olga V Trefilova, Ruben Valbuena, Luis Valenzuela Gamarra, Sergey Vasiliev, Estella F Vedrova, Sergey V Verhovets, Edson Vidal, Nadezhda A Vladimirova, Jason Vleminckx, Vincent A Vos, Foma K Vozmitel, Wolfgang Wanek, Thales A P West, Hannsjorg Woell, John T Woods, Verginia Wortel, Toshihiro Yamada, Zamah Shari Nur Hajar, Irié Casimir Zo-Bi

*Corresponding author for this work

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Abstract

Forest biomass is an essential indicator for monitoring the Earth's ecosystems and climate. It is a critical input to greenhouse gas accounting, estimation of carbon losses and forest degradation, assessment of renewable energy potential, and for developing climate change mitigation policies such as REDD+, among others. Wall-to-wall mapping of aboveground biomass (AGB) is now possible with satellite remote sensing (RS). However, RS methods require extant, up-to-date, reliable, representative and comparable in situ data for calibration and validation. Here, we present the Forest Observation System (FOS) initiative, an international cooperation to establish and maintain a global in situ forest biomass database. AGB and canopy height estimates with their associated uncertainties are derived at a 0.25 ha scale from field measurements made in permanent research plots across the world's forests. All plot estimates are geolocated and have a size that allows for direct comparison with many RS measurements. The FOS offers the potential to improve the accuracy of RS-based biomass products while developing new synergies between the RS and ground-based ecosystem research communities.

Original languageEnglish
Article number198
JournalScientific Data
Volume6
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 10 Oct 2019

Keywords

  • biogeography
  • forest ecology
  • DENSITY
  • RATES
  • NETWORK
  • DYNAMICS
  • SENSITIVITY
  • ABOVEGROUND BIOMASS
  • PATTERNS

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Information Systems
  • Education
  • Library and Information Sciences
  • Statistics and Probability
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty

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    Schepaschenko, D., Chave, J., Phillips, O. L., Lewis, S. L., Davies, S. J., Réjou-Méchain, M., Sist, P., Scipal, K., Perger, C., Herault, B., Labrière, N., Hofhansl, F., Affum-Baffoe, K., Aleinikov, A., Alonso, A., Amani, C., Araujo-Murakami, A., Armston, J., Arroyo, L., ... Zo-Bi, I. C. (2019). The Forest Observation System, building a global reference dataset for remote sensing of forest biomass. Scientific Data, 6, [198]. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-019-0196-1