AMAZON LIDAR Project MEETINGS

Planning meeting, Biosphere 2, March 18 2008

Start: ~9:00

Saleska – carbon balance

 ML: does ED predict leaf surfaces as a function of height?

Is there a correlation with CWD

Medium heights  more CWD

Main correlation – with gap size distribution

Jess Parker

9:20

Problem of asking: how wide should the strip be? IKONOS tree crown size distribution could tell you how far, on average, trees spread.

Different uplooking vs. downlooking

9:52: Stark, LIDAR to model light environments

Balloons:

10:30: Maria Hunter

Canopy heights vs. distance from rivers

Canopy crowns from IKONOS.

11:18: Michael Lefsky

Compared to discrete-return LIDAR all over the place.

Less than 24% (angle at which density is inflated by 10%)

Shot density: 1/m2 is minimum for getting unbiased ground DEM

11:54: Monica

Wrap-up.

Monica & Scott:

-re-do the flight survey areas

-put the specific/explicit requirements in letter to Esteio

Saleska:

- get the details on the funds for Dalton

- ask Lorena/Theresa about field permissions (Jess Parker, Lefsky et al.)

Jess:

-use what we have now: Veronika project; Joost

-

Maria has a list of what was on the white board.

LBA meeting in Manaus, November 16 – November 21.

Meeting with Bill Magnusson (INPA--PPBio), Flávia Pezzini, Regina Luizao (INPA –BDFF)

Including Scott (Stark), Monica, & Juliana.

1. What projects are we doing?Brief discussion of what each of the projects currently underway are about. Here is my understanding (correctable at the meeting):
a. Monica Shimabukuro (INPE) -- Comparing Forest structure (including biomass) between Manaus and Santarem, and using high-density LIDAR data (at Ducke) to look at the relation between species composition and forest structure.
b. Scott Stark (UofA) -- Using LIDAR Data to assess how light limitation affects tree growth and landscape-scale carbon uptake.

Step 1: crown delineation

Step 2: light modeling/measurement

Step 3: test models of tree growth under light

c. Juliana Schietti (INPA) - Using LIDAR to evaluate relations between topography and canopy structure, (specifically: does growing on plateau or valley effect tree height?)

CT-Hydro: relating tree structure to related topography, water, and soil
(comment --Camargo: and light limitation might be important)

-- Improve calibration of SRTM elevations;

d. Maria Hunter (UNH) -- If possible, we may have a report from Maria Hunter about her ideas
One other person who may be interested in using this data for a project is Sergio Bernardes.
(more fully remote-sensing oriented: satellite v airborne LIDAR)

Other projects possibilities (lead researcher undefined):
-- Can LIDAR be used to assess Coarse wood debris stocks?: Best done where some work has been done on CWD. Where are these? (besides Tapajos)
-- Analysis of BDFF fragments vs forests, and canopy along chronosequence.
-- Analysis of Tapajos km83 logging chronosequence (perhaps Maria will work on this?).
-- use of LIDAR at plots/footprint of km34/ZF-2

2. What are our fieldwork/data gathering needs?
a. Existing Data that we will need: Tapajos km67 biometry and ground LIDAR data (at Harvard and UofA and SERC); BDFF biometric data (at INPA); Ducke Biometric data (PPBio); Km34/ZF2 biometric data (Niro Higuchi; SERC has ground LIDAR). What sites have Coarse Wood measurements?

Ducke CWD: extensive Line-intersect survey completed in the last year.

b. Additional Fieldwork: (i) Canopy stem and crown geolocation and mensuration (lots of hard work that should be done at least at high density sites; Scott Stark has started already). (ii) extensive measurements of subcanopy light levels (Scott Stark plans for this Dec/January) (iii) extensive measurements of CWD on large plots in LIDAR footprint? Other things that we need?

Ground LIDAR data: acquire at Ducke; and at Jacaranda plots

Field data: PPBio: three time points (different time points) by Caroline. Last time point: finishing in Feb.

To-DO

  1. Plan PCL (Portable Canopy LIDAR = ground lidar) acquisitions in Ducke & Km34 (Jacaranda) & BDFF ( start with km 41 w. 3 parallel trails in intact fragments) ?
  1. Get airborne DTM – DCM Canopy heights for comparison to Ducke CWD data (and Tapajos!) : (Scott Saleska: write up synopsis of this project, forward to Ducke group to start comparing to their CWD data)
  2. Write-up proposal/work plan for projects that can be done (e.g Master’s projects). (Stark)
  3. Find out Jess Parker’s schedule for visitng Amazon (more PCL surveys)

AGU Meeting, Dec 17-19, 2008

Dinner with Lefsky, Maria Hunter, and Monica.

Lunch with Maria Hunter and Michael Palace

Maria Hunter plan

  1. Gap Scaling problem: ground to aircraft to GLAS. Ultimate goal: gap frequency and size distribution at the landscape, regional and basin scale.
  2. What distributions of aircraft-LIDAR patterns match each GLAS footprint.
  3. Field work on gap dynamics (biomass and functional group composition).
    (new plots stratified across the spectrum of lidar-measured disturbance regimes)

Make sure CWD included.

Michael Palace interested in/willing to do crown ID work on the LIDAR data.

General CWD issues:

-Fernando has some CWD/Gap data from Km67 (check) and km83

-CWD master’s student? (Scott Stark is checking in Manaus)

Feb 13, 2009

Scott Stark report.

-Instruments: high accuracy diff GPS, laser rangefinder/clinometer/compass; sonic rangefinder; red-farred sensor.

-Subplots every 25 m (1 in each half). Mapped first half of transect 2: center points of subplots are GPS’d

-

Need to figure out GPS software

TO-DO:

  1. Get LIDAR data somewhere.
  2. Get web page up for sharing data and info.

March 14, 2009

Schedule for Manaus visit.

Sun 3/15 -- 9am meet at INPA: Lefsky, Lefsky 2, Saleska, Stark, Maria, Monica, Bill, Juliana, Flavia, Jota-jota

10am at Ducke

Visit 2 plots: 3-3.5 hours

Mon–Tues BDFF

Wed. INPA

9am: meet with BDFF. Jose Luis, Rita Mesquita.

2-2:15 talk to MS. Students (Stark)

Meet with Niro? (email!)

DISCUSSION

Scott Stark -- df

Maria – overview of project. as proposed to NASA.

Monica – discussion about species composition vs. structural diversity

(1)Pyle et al on LIDAR

(2)F(Spp, layer N) ~ G( structure, layer M) (e.g. species layer N vs. structure layer N+1)

(3)LIDAR v. Biomass

Juliana –

(1)Ground lidar work in two weeks.

(2)All 64 plots in Ducke, + 100 plots betw. Manaus and Porto Velho (why ground LIDAR)

(3)Relate structure to topography and slope & hydrology (depth of water table, soil moisture), etc.

Other candidate projects:

Jota Jota --

Sergio

Fernando – Gap

Michael Palace –crowns.

Lefsky/ Saatchi–

Funded for global analysis / datasets

Lourdes height (Basal area weighted height)

Planning meeting for collaboration and work with airborne LIDAR data in the Amazon -- Projects

18 March 2009, PDBFF, Manaus

We plan an open cooperative collaboration, in which all groups share all relevant data from ground and air, with sufficient communication to organize the different projects.

Listed here are students leading projects – we expect these to be advised by collaborating scientists at UofA (Saleska), Colorado State (Lefsky), Smithsonian (Parker); PPBio (Bill Magnusson & Flavia Costa), BDFF (Jose Luis Camargo & Mesquita), ZF-2 (Higuchi for Biomass and Manzi for tower); USP (Plinio Camargo for Tapajos); CTFS project (Alexandre Oliviera)

  1. Comparison of overall structure between Tapajos and Manaus sites and relation to carbon balance (Monica S. + collaborators: starting with Tapajos & BDFF data, like in Pyle et al. paper, possible extension to include Ducke)
  2. Scaling photosynthesis and tree growth from individuals to the ecosystem by modeling canopy light levels and LAI (Scott Stark et al. Primarily Tapajos + Ducke)
  3. Extrapolating Forest veg & carbon dynamics to the large scale: aircraft to satellite data (Maria Hunter + others: establishing new plots in Tapajos and maybe Ducke; scaling to IceSat/GLAS satellite data)
  4. Initial comparison between ground and airborne LIDAR to retrieve forest structure, focusing on km67, Tapajos (Veronika Leitold undergrad thesis at Harvard, advised by Wofsy and Saleska)
  5. Relation between topography and forest structure and growth rates (Juliana + others, focusing on Ducke -- includes comparison of ground and aircraft at Ducke sites – extending to transects along Manaus-Porto Velho planned road using ground LIDAR)
  6. Scaling decomposition to the canopy scale: can we quantify coarse wood debris on the ground from identifying gaps from LIDAR? (Maria Hunter : Tapajos; , Jota jota: Ducke; others for BDFF and ZF-2, possibly with mentors such as Henrique Nasciemento?)
  7. Species composition compared to canopy structure in Ducke (Monica S. + PPBio people)

Some Projects as yet undefined

  1. Chronosequences and secondary forest: (BDFF – who?)
  2. Forest structure and phonological data at BDFF – Camargo + student + collaborators)