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AmazECO project code repository

The project

Ecosystem vertical profiles (EVPs) characterize the vertical distribution of sessile biological entities in an ecosystem, which affects the number and variety of potential niches and identifies critical aspects of ecosystem state. In Valbuena et al. (2020) [1] we advocate for a standardization of ecosystem morphological traits derived from EVPs characterized by LIDAR, so that they can become useful to inform ecosystem structure EBVs. These traits should focus on being relevant to the ecosystem, and not on the means for measuring them. Thus, the goal of this project is to demonstrate that we can deliver platform-independent EVPs from both satellite and airborne LIDAR sensors, and provide the means for a global ecosystem structure LIDAR product that can be crowdsourced through national BONs. This will be enabled by high performance computing (HPC) workflows for common satellite/airborne LIDAR derivation of ecosystem traits, which we will produce and implement into a first prototype product covering whole of the Amazon with traits produced from combined satellite and airborne LIDAR. The satellite LIDAR will be obtained from the currently operational global ecosystem dynamics investigation (GEDI) mission. The airborne LIDAR workflow will make use of an unprecedentedly extensive dataset of 906 randomly located transects sizing 375 ha each, from the ‘improving biomass estimation methods for the Amazon’ (EBA) (Gorgens et al. 2020) [13], plus data from the Sustainable Landscapes Brazil (SLB) project (Longo et al. 2016) [37]. The product will consist of a multilayered raster data product with LIDAR measures of EVP traits – ecosystem height, cover, and structural complexity – [1], including estimations of their uncertainties and a demonstration of how airborne LIDAR can be used to improve those over a satellite product. The code developed will be made publicly available for other GEO BON members and organizations, with procedures incorporated as a function in the rGEDI package (Silva et al. 2020) [33], and HPC pipelines enabling national BONs to compute these EVP traits locally, or nationally, using globally consistent protocols that comply with the standards established for the EBV portal.

[1] Valbuena R., O’Connor B., Zellweger F., Simonson W., Vihervaara P., Maltamo M., Silva C.A., Almeida D.R.A., Danks F., Morsdorf F., Chirici G., Coomes D.A. & Coops N.C. (2020) Standardising Ecosystem Morphological Traits from 3D Information Sources. Trends in Ecology and Evolution [in press], https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0169534720300811?via%3Dihub.

[2] Görgens E.B., Nunes M.H., Jackson T., Reis C.R., Almeida D.R.A., Coomes D.A., Keller M., Gimenez B., Valbuena R., Rosette J., Cantinho R.Z., Motta A.Z., Assis M., Pereira F.S., Spanner G., Higuchi N. & Ometto J.P. (2020) Resource Availability and Disturbance Shape Maximum Tree Height across the Amazon. bioRxiv [pre-print], https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X19307320?via%3Dihub.

[3] Aguiar, A. P. D., et al. (2012), Modeling the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of deforestation‐driven carbon emissions: The INPE‐EM framework applied to the Brazilian Amazon, Glob. Change Biol., 18(11), 3346–3366, doi:10.1111/j.1365‐2486.2012.02782.x, https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2016GB005465