Round-7
Round 7

Remote sensing applied to forest mortality assessment : the case study of an unprecedented mortality event in mature Pine plantations in Argentina

Dr Gabriel Gatica - CIGEOBIO (Universidad Nacional de San Juan - CONICET) / Forest Ecology Group (Tandil, IPADS Balcarce INTA CONICET), Argentina

The applications of remote sensing techniques are under continuous development. In the present seminar we present  their possibilities in relation to studies of forest mortality, in particular to commercial plantations. In contrast to studies focused on natural forests, little evidence exists on the impact of “hotter-drought” events on commercial forestry species planted outside their native range. With the aid of remote sensing, complemented with field surveys, we explored an unexpected and regionally-distributed tree mortality event that occurred recently in commercial pine species across the Mesopotamian region of Argentina, South America. The event was associated with a hotter-drought period during the 2021-2022 warm season preceded by three years of drought and was spatially heterogeneous at regional and local scales. We used Sentinel 2 and Landsat 8 multispectral images and Random Forests algorithms to map canopy mortality timing, rate, and magnitude in Pinus taeda and their association with environmental and stand characteristics at the local scale to determine which conditions make these productive systems more vulnerable to extreme climatic events. We found that landscape characteristics and previous conditions are important drivers of the occurrence and mortality rate in the forest stands studied. The methodology could be applied in other systems serving as a useful tool to define the areas more suitable for climate-smart forest management as well as to build mortality-risk maps in productive landscapes.

See also

Modification date: 12 January 2024 | Publication date: 12 October 2023 | By: Gabriel Gatica