More than one quarter of Africa's tree cover is found outside areas previously classified as forest
Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › fagfællebedømt
Standard
More than one quarter of Africa's tree cover is found outside areas previously classified as forest. / Reiner, Florian; Brandt, Martin; Tong, Xiaoye; Skole, David; Kariryaa, Ankit; Ciais, Philippe; Davies, Andrew; Hiernaux, Pierre; Chave, Jérôme; Mugabowindekwe, Maurice; Igel, Christian; Oehmcke, Stefan; Gieseke, Fabian; Li, Sizhuo; Liu, Siyu; Saatchi, Sassan; Boucher, Peter; Singh, Jenia; Taugourdeau, Simon; Dendoncker, Morgane; Song, Xiao-Peng; Mertz, Ole; Tucker, Compton J.; Fensholt, Rasmus.
I: Nature Communications, Bind 14, 2258, 2023.Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › fagfællebedømt
Harvard
APA
Vancouver
Author
Bibtex
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
T1 - More than one quarter of Africa's tree cover is found outside areas previously classified as forest
AU - Reiner, Florian
AU - Brandt, Martin
AU - Tong, Xiaoye
AU - Skole, David
AU - Kariryaa, Ankit
AU - Ciais, Philippe
AU - Davies, Andrew
AU - Hiernaux, Pierre
AU - Chave, Jérôme
AU - Mugabowindekwe, Maurice
AU - Igel, Christian
AU - Oehmcke, Stefan
AU - Gieseke, Fabian
AU - Li, Sizhuo
AU - Liu, Siyu
AU - Saatchi, Sassan
AU - Boucher, Peter
AU - Singh, Jenia
AU - Taugourdeau, Simon
AU - Dendoncker, Morgane
AU - Song, Xiao-Peng
AU - Mertz, Ole
AU - Tucker, Compton J.
AU - Fensholt, Rasmus
N1 - © 2023. The Author(s).
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - The consistent monitoring of trees both inside and outside of forests is key to sustainable land management. Current monitoring systems either ignore trees outside forests or are too expensive to be applied consistently across countries on a repeated basis. Here we use the PlanetScope nanosatellite constellation, which delivers global very high-resolution daily imagery, to map both forest and non-forest tree cover for continental Africa using images from a single year. Our prototype map of 2019 (RMSE = 9.57%, bias = -6.9%). demonstrates that a precise assessment of all tree-based ecosystems is possible at continental scale, and reveals that 29% of tree cover is found outside areas previously classified as tree cover in state-of-the-art maps, such as in croplands and grassland. Such accurate mapping of tree cover down to the level of individual trees and consistent among countries has the potential to redefine land use impacts in non-forest landscapes, move beyond the need for forest definitions, and build the basis for natural climate solutions and tree-related studies.
AB - The consistent monitoring of trees both inside and outside of forests is key to sustainable land management. Current monitoring systems either ignore trees outside forests or are too expensive to be applied consistently across countries on a repeated basis. Here we use the PlanetScope nanosatellite constellation, which delivers global very high-resolution daily imagery, to map both forest and non-forest tree cover for continental Africa using images from a single year. Our prototype map of 2019 (RMSE = 9.57%, bias = -6.9%). demonstrates that a precise assessment of all tree-based ecosystems is possible at continental scale, and reveals that 29% of tree cover is found outside areas previously classified as tree cover in state-of-the-art maps, such as in croplands and grassland. Such accurate mapping of tree cover down to the level of individual trees and consistent among countries has the potential to redefine land use impacts in non-forest landscapes, move beyond the need for forest definitions, and build the basis for natural climate solutions and tree-related studies.
KW - Ecosystem
KW - Forests
KW - Climate
KW - Africa
U2 - 10.1038/s41467-023-37880-4
DO - 10.1038/s41467-023-37880-4
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 37130845
VL - 14
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
SN - 2041-1723
M1 - 2258
ER -
ID: 346688385