Anatomic features underlying wood density, in 110 rainforest tree species from central Congo basin

Investigate the influence of fiber thickness and vessel diameter on the wood density in 110 rainforest tree species, and the relationships between wood density, wood water content and shrinking ratio.COBIMF

Historical aerial surveys map long-term changes of forest cover and structure in the Central Congo basin

Given the impact of tropical forest disturbances on atmospheric carbon emissions, biodiversity, and ecosystem productivity, accurate long-term reporting of Land-Use and Land-Cover (LULC) change in the pre-satellite era (<1972) is an imperative. Here, we used a combination of historical (1958) aerial photography and contemporary remote sensing data to map long-term changes in the extent and structure of the tropical forest surrounding Yangambi (DR Congo) in the central Congo Basin. Our study leveraged structure-from-motion and a convolutional neural network-based LULC classifier, using synthetic landscape-based image augmentation to map historical forest cover across a large orthomosaic (similar to 93,431 ha) geo-referenced to similar to 4.7 +/- 4.3 m at submeter resolution. A comparison with contemporary LULC data showed a shift from previously highly regular industrial deforestation of large areas to discrete smallholder farming clearing, increasing landscape fragmentation and providing opportunties for substantial forest regrowth. We estimated aboveground carbon gains through reforestation to range from 811 to 1592 Gg C, partially offsetting historical deforestation (2416 Gg C), in our study area. Efforts to quantify long-term canopy texture changes and their link to aboveground carbon had limited to no success. Our analysis provides methods and insights into key spatial and temporal patterns of deforestation and reforestation at a multi-decadal scale, providing a historical context for past and ongoing forest research in the area

Investigation of edge effect on wood density in recent tropical forest edges in Yangambi Man and Biosphere Reserve

Rapid development of lumbering activities in tropical forested areas has an important impact on carbon stocks and landscape configuration. Indeed, lumbering tend to fragment forest patches, extend edges length, and expose core areas to non-forested ecosystems. These exposed core areas then undergo new constraints that can lead to a shift in their ecological features, called the edge effect. We investigate the possible presence of an edge effect on wood density in Yangambi reserve. Wood density (along with diameter and height) is a key feature for biomass estimations in tropical forests. Thus, fluctuations of wood density in forest edges could lead to incorrect estimations of carbon stocks. Ten 1ha plots were installed in core and recent (5 to 10 years) forest¿s edges. Trees were measured and wood samples were collected for density analysis. We focused on 2 main research questions: 1) Does the edge effect induce the emergence of species with a higher or lower wood density in edge area? 2) Does wood density differ amongst individuals of the same specie in core and in edge area? While the data is still being explored as we write, preliminary results seem to indicate that there is no significant difference between the overall mean wood density in edge and core plots. Density differences amongst species are still under exploration. If this behaviour still holds, this would imply that the fragmentation of a forested landscape has no short-term effect on the overall forest wood density and thus, no effect on biomass estimations.Congo Basin integrated monitoring for forest carbon mitigation and biodiversity (COBIMFO

Multi-decadal carbon and water relations of African tropical humid forests: a tree-ring stable isotope analysis

Little is known about the temporal dynamics of the carbon sequestering capacity and dynamics of African tropical humid forest ecosystems in response to various environmental drivers. This lack of knowledge is mainly due to the absence of ecosystem scale flux measurements of gas exchange. However, tree growth often displays itself as alternating pattern of visible rings due to the seasonally varying growth speed of the vascular cambium. Consequently, analysis of tree growth through tree-ring analysis provides us with insights into past responses of the carbon sequestering capacity of key species to abrupt ecosystem disturbances and, while slower, a changing climate. Not only does the width and density of growth rings reflect annual growth but their isotopic composition of 13C/12C and 18O/16O isotopes also reveal the environmental conditions in which the trees were growing. In particular, stable isotope ratios in tree-rings of carbon are influenced by fractionation through carboxylation during photosynthesis and changes in leaf stomatal conductance. Similarly, fractionation of oxygen isotopes of soil water occurs at the leaf level through evapo-transipiration. As a consequence, 18O/16O (δ 18O) values in wood cores will reflect both the signal of the source water as well as that of for example summer humidity. Therefore, both C and O stable isotopes might not only be valuable as proxy data for past climatic conditions but they also serve as an important tool in understanding carbon and water relations within a tropical forest ecosystems. To this end we correlate long term climate records (1961 – present) with tree ring measurement of incremental growth and high resolution analysis of tree-core stable isotope composition(δ 13C , δ 18O) at a tropical humid forests in the DR Congo. The Yangambi Man And Biosphere (MAB) reserve is located in the north-eastern part of DR Congo, with a distinct tropical rainforest climate. In addition to the tree-core data records and extensive meteorological records collected at both sites, observations on green leaf phenology of key species will provide us with additional information on potential carbon sequestration dynamics. Because, phenology is a first order control on plant productivity. In this unique study, using detailed tree-ring analyses together with auxiliary data, we explore the temporal dynamics of carbon and water relations and the influence on carbon sequestration of key tree species in African tropical humid forests

Second field mission in Yangambi Reserve

Presentation of Thales de Haulleville's planned fieldwork during his second field mission.COBIMF

Density variations and their influence on carbon stocks: case-study on two Biosphere Reserves in the Democratic Republic of Congo

It is commonly acknowledged that allometric equations for aboveground biomass and carbon stock estimates are improved significantly if density is included as a variable. However, not much attention is given to this variable in terms of exact, measured values and density profiles from pith to bark. Most published case-studies obtain density values from literature sources or databases, this way using large ranges of density values and possible causing significant errors in carbon stock estimates. The use of one single fixed value for density is also not recommended if carbon stock increments are estimated. Therefore, our objective is to measure and analyze a large number of tree species occurring in two Biosphere Reserves (Luki and Yangambi). Nevertheless, the diversity of tree species in these tropical forests is too high to perform this kind of detailed analysis on all tree species (> 200/ha). Therefore, we focus on the most frequently encountered tree species with high abundance (trees/ha) and dominance (basal area/ha) for this study. Increment cores were scanned with a helical X-ray protocol to obtain density profiles from pith to bark. This way, we aim at dividing the tree species with a distinct type of density profile into separate groups. If, e.g., slopes in density values from pith to bark remain stable over larger samples of one tree species, this slope could also be used to correct for errors in carbon (increment) estimates, caused by density values from simplified density measurements or density values from literature. In summary, this is most likely the first study in the Congo Basin that focuses on density patterns in order to check their influence on carbon stocks and differences in carbon stocking based on species composition (density profiles ∼ temperament of tree species)

Pertinence de la mise en oeuvre des initiatives de Réductions des Emissions dues à la Déforestation et à la Dégradation des forêts (REDD) pour les communautés locales. Cas des formations de tapia dans la région d'Itasy

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe