Topography shapes the structure, composition and function of tropical forest landscapes

Tommaso Jucker; Boris Bongalov; David Burslem; Reuben Nilus; Michele Dalponte; Simon L. Lewis; Oliver L.  Phillips; Lan  Qie; David A. Coomes

doi:10.1111/ele.12964

Topography shapes the structure, composition and function of tropical forest landscapes

Tommaso Jucker, Boris Bongalov, David Burslem, Reuben Nilus, Michele Dalponte, Simon L. Lewis, Oliver L. Phillips, Lan Qie, David A. Coomes

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

68 Citations (Scopus)

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Abstract

Topography is a key driver of tropical forest structure and composition, as it constrains local nutrient and hydraulic conditions within which trees grow. Yet we do not fully understand how changes in forest physiognomy driven by topography impact other emergent properties of forests, such as their aboveground carbon density (ACD). Working in Borneo – at a site where 70-m-tall forests in alluvial valleys rapidly transition to stunted heath forests on nutrient-depleted dip-slopes – we combined field data with airborne laser scanning and hyperspectral imaging to characterize how topography shapes the vertical structure, wood density, diversity and ACD of nearly 15 km2 of old-growth forest. We found that subtle differences in elevation – which control soil chemistry and hydrology – profoundly influenced the structure, composition and diversity of the canopy. Capturing these processes was critical to explaining landscape-scale heterogeneity in ACD, highlighting how emerging remote sensing technologies can provide new insights into longstanding ecological questions.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	989-1000
Number of pages	12
Journal	Ecology Letters
Volume	21
Issue number	7
Early online date	16 Apr 2018
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.12964 https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.5998616.v1
Publication status	Published - Jul 2018

Keywords

aboveground carbon density
biodiversity
canopy height
gap fraction
hyperspectral imaging
airborne laser scanning (or LiDAR)
remote sensing
terrain elevation
slope and curvature
wood density

Access to Document

10.1111/ele.12964Licence: CC BY
10.6084/m9.figshare.5998616.v1Licence: CC BY

Topography shapes the structure, composition and function of tropical forest landscapes
© 2018 The Authors. Ecology Letters published by CNRS and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. See https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Final published version, 1.19 MBLicence: CC BY

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David Burslem
- Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences
- Biological Sciences, Aberdeen Centre For Environmental Sustainability - Personal Chair
Person: Academic

Cite this

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title = "Topography shapes the structure, composition and function of tropical forest landscapes",

abstract = "Topography is a key driver of tropical forest structure and composition, as it constrains local nutrient and hydraulic conditions within which trees grow. Yet we do not fully understand how changes in forest physiognomy driven by topography impact other emergent properties of forests, such as their aboveground carbon density (ACD). Working in Borneo – at a site where 70-m-tall forests in alluvial valleys rapidly transition to stunted heath forests on nutrient-depleted dip-slopes – we combined field data with airborne laser scanning and hyperspectral imaging to characterize how topography shapes the vertical structure, wood density, diversity and ACD of nearly 15 km2 of old-growth forest. We found that subtle differences in elevation – which control soil chemistry and hydrology – profoundly influenced the structure, composition and diversity of the canopy. Capturing these processes was critical to explaining landscape-scale heterogeneity in ACD, highlighting how emerging remote sensing technologies can provide new insights into longstanding ecological questions.",

keywords = "aboveground carbon density, biodiversity, canopy height, gap fraction, hyperspectral imaging, airborne laser scanning (or LiDAR), remote sensing, terrain elevation, slope and curvature, wood density",

author = "Tommaso Jucker and Boris Bongalov and David Burslem and Reuben Nilus and Michele Dalponte and Lewis, {Simon L.} and Phillips, {Oliver L.} and Lan Qie and Coomes, {David A.}",

note = "This work was funded through NERC{\textquoteright}s Human Modified Tropical Forests research programme (grant number NE/K016377/1 awarded to the BALI consortium). Field data collection was supported by an ERC Advanced Grant (291585, T-FORCES) awarded to O.L.P., who is also a Royal Society-Wolfson Research Merit Award holder. We are grateful to NERC{\textquoteright}s Airborne Research Facility and Data Analysis Node for conducting the airborne survey and pre-processing the data, and to Abdullah Ghani for operating the GPS base station during the survey. We acknowledge the South East Asia Rainforest Research Partnership, Sabah Foundation, Benta Wawasan, the State Secretary, Sabah Chief Minister{\textquoteright}s Departments, Sabah Forestry Department, Sabah Biodiversity Centre and the Economic Planning Unit for their support, access to the field site and for permission to carry out fieldwork in Sabah. We thank the many field assistants who contributed to data collection, as well as Christopher Philipson and two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments that helped us improve our paper. DATA ACCESSIBILITY STATEMENT Data used in this study are available at: https://doi.org/10. 6084/m9.figshare.5998616.v1",

year = "2018",

month = jul,

doi = "10.1111/ele.12964",

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AU - Bongalov, Boris

AU - Burslem, David

AU - Nilus, Reuben

AU - Dalponte, Michele

AU - Lewis, Simon L.

AU - Phillips, Oliver L.

AU - Qie, Lan

AU - Coomes, David A.

N1 - This work was funded through NERC’s Human Modified Tropical Forests research programme (grant number NE/K016377/1 awarded to the BALI consortium). Field data collection was supported by an ERC Advanced Grant (291585, T-FORCES) awarded to O.L.P., who is also a Royal Society-Wolfson Research Merit Award holder. We are grateful to NERC’s Airborne Research Facility and Data Analysis Node for conducting the airborne survey and pre-processing the data, and to Abdullah Ghani for operating the GPS base station during the survey. We acknowledge the South East Asia Rainforest Research Partnership, Sabah Foundation, Benta Wawasan, the State Secretary, Sabah Chief Minister’s Departments, Sabah Forestry Department, Sabah Biodiversity Centre and the Economic Planning Unit for their support, access to the field site and for permission to carry out fieldwork in Sabah. We thank the many field assistants who contributed to data collection, as well as Christopher Philipson and two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments that helped us improve our paper. DATA ACCESSIBILITY STATEMENT Data used in this study are available at: https://doi.org/10. 6084/m9.figshare.5998616.v1

PY - 2018/7

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N2 - Topography is a key driver of tropical forest structure and composition, as it constrains local nutrient and hydraulic conditions within which trees grow. Yet we do not fully understand how changes in forest physiognomy driven by topography impact other emergent properties of forests, such as their aboveground carbon density (ACD). Working in Borneo – at a site where 70-m-tall forests in alluvial valleys rapidly transition to stunted heath forests on nutrient-depleted dip-slopes – we combined field data with airborne laser scanning and hyperspectral imaging to characterize how topography shapes the vertical structure, wood density, diversity and ACD of nearly 15 km2 of old-growth forest. We found that subtle differences in elevation – which control soil chemistry and hydrology – profoundly influenced the structure, composition and diversity of the canopy. Capturing these processes was critical to explaining landscape-scale heterogeneity in ACD, highlighting how emerging remote sensing technologies can provide new insights into longstanding ecological questions.

AB - Topography is a key driver of tropical forest structure and composition, as it constrains local nutrient and hydraulic conditions within which trees grow. Yet we do not fully understand how changes in forest physiognomy driven by topography impact other emergent properties of forests, such as their aboveground carbon density (ACD). Working in Borneo – at a site where 70-m-tall forests in alluvial valleys rapidly transition to stunted heath forests on nutrient-depleted dip-slopes – we combined field data with airborne laser scanning and hyperspectral imaging to characterize how topography shapes the vertical structure, wood density, diversity and ACD of nearly 15 km2 of old-growth forest. We found that subtle differences in elevation – which control soil chemistry and hydrology – profoundly influenced the structure, composition and diversity of the canopy. Capturing these processes was critical to explaining landscape-scale heterogeneity in ACD, highlighting how emerging remote sensing technologies can provide new insights into longstanding ecological questions.

KW - aboveground carbon density

KW - biodiversity

KW - canopy height

KW - gap fraction

KW - hyperspectral imaging

KW - airborne laser scanning (or LiDAR)

KW - remote sensing

KW - terrain elevation

KW - slope and curvature

KW - wood density

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SP - 989

EP - 1000

JO - Ecology Letters

JF - Ecology Letters

SN - 1461-023X

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