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A special issue of Forests (ISSN 1999-4907). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Inventory, Modeling and Remote Sensing".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 August 2018) | Viewed by 37338

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Special Issue Editor

Dr. David M. Bell

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USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station, Corvallis, OR 97331, USA

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Drought is contributing to substantial changes in forests across the globe. Drought-induced forest change (1) can occur over several decades, or suddenly, with little to no warning, (2) can be mediated by other processes at acting multiple scales, requiring landscape- to regional-scale research, and (3) may have consequences that persist for short or long durations, depending on ecosystem resilience. These characteristics of drought-induced forest change emphasize a key role for remote sensing in identifying, monitoring, and understanding forest change and its consequences.

For this Special Issue of Forests, we invite papers addressing the development and/or application of remote sensing approaches for quantifying drought-induced forest change and its consequences in terms of forest structure, composition, and/or function. We welcome studies from all forest biomes and relevant disciplines. Forest changes need not be long lasting (e.g., ephemeral changes in tree phenology) to be considered for this issue. For this Special Issue, the geographic scope of the research can range from landscapes to the entire globe.

Dr. David M. Bell
Guest Editor

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Keywords

drought
forests
remote sensing
resilience

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Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 4938 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Drought Influence on Forest Plantations in Zululand, South Africa, Using MODIS Time Series and Climate Data

by Sifiso Xulu, Kabir Peerbhay, Michael Gebreslasie and Riyad Ismail

Forests 2018, 9(9), 528; https://doi.org/10.3390/f9090528 - 30 Aug 2018

Cited by 39 | Viewed by 7303

Abstract

South Africa has a long history of recurrent droughts that have adversely affected its economic performance. The recent 2015 drought has been declared the most serious in 26 years and impaired key agricultural sectors including the forestry sector. Research on the forests’ responses to drought is therefore essential for management planning and monitoring. The effects of the latest drought on the forests in South Africa have not been studied and are uncertain. The study reported here addresses this gap by using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)-derived normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and precipitation data retrieved and processed using the JavaScript code editor in the Google Earth Engine (GEE) and the corresponding normalized difference infrared index (NDII), Palmer drought severity index (PDSI), and El Niño time series data for KwaMbonambi, northern Zululand, between 2002 and 2016. The NDVI and NDII time series were decomposed using the Breaks for Additive Seasonal and Trend (BFAST) method to establish the trend and seasonal variation. Multiple linear regression and Mann–Kendall tests were applied to determine the association of the NDVI and NDII with the climate variables. Plantation trees displayed high NDVI values (0.74–0.78) from 2002 to 2013; then, they decreased sharply to 0.64 in 2015. The Mann–Kendall trend test confirmed a negative significant (p = 0.000353) trend between 2014 and 2015. This pattern was associated with a precipitation deficit and low NDII values during a strong El Niño phase. The PDSI (−2.6) values indicated severe drought conditions. The greening decreased in 2015, with some forest remnants showing resistance, implying that the tree species had varying sensitivity to drought. We found that the plantation trees suffered drought stress during 2015, although it seems that the trees began to recover, as the NDVI signals rose in 2016. Overall, these results demonstrated the effective use of the NDVI- and NDII-derived MODIS data coupled with climatic variables to provide insights into the influence of drought on plantation trees in the study area. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remotely Sensing of Drought-Induced Forest Change and Recovery)

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20 pages, 3906 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Drought Sensitiveness on Forest Growth in Peninsular Spain and the Balearic Islands

by Marina Peña-Gallardo, Sergio M. Vicente-Serrano, J. Julio Camarero, Antonio Gazol, Raúl Sánchez-Salguero, Fernando Domínguez-Castro, Ahmed El Kenawy, Santiago Beguería-Portugés, Emilia Gutiérrez, Martin De Luis, Gabriel Sangüesa-Barreda, Klemen Novak, Vicente Rozas, Pedro A. Tíscar, Juan C. Linares, Edurne Martínez del Castillo, Montserrat Ribas Matamoros, Ignacio García-González, Fernando Silla, Álvaro Camisón, Mar Génova, José M. Olano, Luis A. Longares, Andrea Hevia and J. Diego Galván Show full author list Hide full author list

Forests 2018, 9(9), 524; https://doi.org/10.3390/f9090524 - 30 Aug 2018

Cited by 48 | Viewed by 8478

Abstract

Drought is one of the key natural hazards impacting net primary production and tree growth in forest ecosystems. Nonetheless, tree species show different responses to drought events, which make it difficult to adopt fixed tools for monitoring drought impacts under contrasting environmental and climatic conditions. In this study, we assess the response of forest growth and a satellite proxy of the net primary production (NPP) to drought in peninsular Spain and the Balearic Islands, a region characterized by complex climatological, topographical, and environmental characteristics. Herein, we employed three different indicators based on in situ measurements and satellite image-derived vegetation information (i.e., tree-ring width, maximum annual greenness, and an indicator of NPP). We used seven different climate drought indices to assess drought impacts on the tree variables analyzed. The selected drought indices include four versions of the Palmer Drought Severity Index (PDSI, Palmer Hydrological Drought Index (PHDI), Z-index, and Palmer Modified Drought Index (PMDI)) and three multi-scalar indices (Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), and Standardized Precipitation Drought Index (SPDI)). Our results suggest that—irrespective of drought index and tree species—tree-ring width shows a stronger response to interannual variability of drought, compared to the greenness and the NPP. In comparison to other drought indices (e.g., PDSI), and our results demonstrate that multi-scalar drought indices (e.g., SPI, SPEI) are more advantageous in monitoring drought impacts on tree-ring growth, maximum greenness, and NPP. This finding suggests that multi-scalar indices are more appropriate for monitoring and modelling forest drought in peninsular Spain and the Balearic Islands. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remotely Sensing of Drought-Induced Forest Change and Recovery)

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20 pages, 5984 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Recent Drought-Induced Vitality Decline of Black Pine (Pinus nigra Arn.) in South-West Hungary—Is This Drought-Resistant Species under Threat by Climate Change?

by Norbert Móricz, Balázs Garamszegi, Ervin Rasztovits, András Bidló, Adrienn Horváth, Attila Jagicza, Gábor Illés, Zoltán Vekerdy, Zoltán Somogyi and Borbála Gálos

Forests 2018, 9(7), 414; https://doi.org/10.3390/f9070414 - 10 Jul 2018

Cited by 29 | Viewed by 5617

Abstract

This paper analyses the recent recurring dieback and growth decline of Black pine (P. nigra Arn. var austriaca) in the Keszthely mountains of south-west Hungary, and their relations to water deficits due to droughts. These relations were studied in five stands with low soil water storage capacity for the period 1981–2016. The vitality was assessed using 60 tree-ring samples and changes in remotely sensed vegetation activity indices, i.e., the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and the normalized difference infrared index (NDII). Water deficit was estimated by using meteorological drought indices such the standardized precipitation–evapotranspiration index (SPEI) and the forestry aridity index (FAI), as well as the relative extractable water (REW), calculated by the Brook90 hydrological model. Results revealed a strong dependency of annual tree ring width on the amount of water deficit as measured by all the above estimators, with the highest correlation shown by the summer REW. Droughts also showed a long-term superimposed effect on tree growth. NDII seemed to be more sensitive to drought conditions than NDVI. The robust dependency of tree growth on the summer water availability combined with the projected increasing aridity might lead to decreasing growth of Black pine in Hungary towards the end of the century. We thus argue that the suggestion by several papers that Black pine can be a possible substitute species in the Alpine and Mediterranean region in the future should be revisited. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remotely Sensing of Drought-Induced Forest Change and Recovery)

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18 pages, 30262 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Stock Volume Dependency of Forest Drought Responses in Yunnan, China

by Hui Luo, Tao Zhou, Chuixiang Yi, Peipei Xu, Xiang Zhao, Shan Gao and Xia Liu

Forests 2018, 9(4), 209; https://doi.org/10.3390/f9040209 - 16 Apr 2018

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 4534

Abstract

Revealing forest drought response characteristics and the potential impact factors is quite an important scientific issue against the background of global climate change, which is the foundation to reliably evaluate and predict the effects of future drought. Due to the high spatial heterogeneity of forest properties such as biomass, forest age, and height, and the distinct differences in drought stress in terms of frequency, intensity, and duration, current studies still contain many uncertainties. In this research, we used the forests in Yunnan Province in Southwest China as an example and aimed to reveal the potential impacts of forest properties (i.e., stock volume) on drought response characteristics. Specifically, we divided the forest into five groups of stock volume density values and then analyzed their drought response differences. To depict forest response to drought intensity, the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) was chosen as the explanatory variable, and the change in remote sensing-based enhanced vegetation index (deficit of MODIS-EVI, dEVI) was chosen as the response variable of drought stress. Given that the SPEI has different time scales, we first analyzed the statistical dependency of SPEIs with different time scales (1 to 36 months) to the response variable (i.e., dEVI). The optimal time scale of SPEI (SPEI_opt) to interpret the maximum variation of dEVI (R-square) was then chosen to build the ultimate statistical models for the five groups of stock volume density. The main findings were as follows: (1) the impacts of drought showed hysteresis and cumulative effects, and the length of the hysteresis increased with stock volume densities; (2) forests with high stock volume densities required more soil water and were therefore more sensitive to the changes in water deficit; (3) compared with the optimal time scale of SPEI (SPEI_opt), the SPEI with the commonly used time scale (e.g., 1, 6, and 12 months) could not well reflect the impacts of drought on forests and the simulation error of dEVI increased with stock volume densities; and (4) forests with higher stock volume densities were likely to experience a greater risk of degradation following higher atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases (Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5). As a result, both the time scale of the meteorological drought index and the spatial difference in forest stock volumes should be considered when evaluating forest drought responses at regional and global scales. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remotely Sensing of Drought-Induced Forest Change and Recovery)

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22 pages, 3834 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Species Diversity of Oak Stands and Its Significance for Drought Resistance

by Jan Kotlarz, Sylwia A. Nasiłowska, Karol Rotchimmel, Katarzyna Kubiak and Mariusz Kacprzak

Forests 2018, 9(3), 126; https://doi.org/10.3390/f9030126 - 7 Mar 2018

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 5479

Abstract

Drought periods have an adverse impact on the condition of oak stands. Research on different types of ecosystems has confirmed a correlation between plant species diversity and the adverse effects of droughts. The purpose of this study was to investigate the changes that occurred in an oak stand (Krotoszyn Plateau, Poland) under the impact of the summer drought in 2015. We used a method based on remote sensing indices from satellite images in order to detect changes in the vegetation in 2014 and 2015. A positive difference was interpreted as an improvement, whereas a negative one was treated as a deterioration of the stand condition. The Shannon-Wiener species diversity was estimated using an iterative principal component analysis (PCA) algorithm based on aerial images. We observed a relationship between the species indices of the individual forest divisions and their response to drought. The highest correlation between the index differences and the Shannon-Wiener indices was found for the Green Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (GNDVI) index (+0.74). In addition, correlations were observed between the mean index difference and the percentage shares in the forest divisions of species such as Pinus sylvestris L. (P. sylvestris) (+0.67 ± 0.08) and Quercus robur L. (Q. robur) (−0.65 ± 0.10). Our results lead us to infer that forest management based on highly diverse habitats is more suitable to meet the challenges in the context of global climatic changes, characterized by increasingly frequent droughts. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remotely Sensing of Drought-Induced Forest Change and Recovery)

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24 pages, 3871 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Drought Impact on Phenology and Green Biomass Production of Alpine Mountain Forest—Case Study of South Tyrol 2001–2012 Inspected with MODIS Time Series

by Katarzyna Ewa Lewińska, Eva Ivits, Mathias Schardt and Marc Zebisch

Forests 2018, 9(2), 91; https://doi.org/10.3390/f9020091 - 16 Feb 2018

Cited by 11 | Viewed by 5233

Abstract

Ecological balance and biodiversity of the alpine forest is endangered by global and local climatic extremes. It spurs a need for comprehensive forest monitoring, including in depth analyses of drought impact on the alpine woodland ecosystems. Addressing an arising knowledge gap, we identified and analyzed 2002–2012 aridity related responses within the alpine mountain forest of South Tyrol. The study exploited a S-mode PCA (Principal Component Analysis) based synergy between meteorological conditions rendered by the scPDSI (self-calibrated Palmer Drought Severity Index) and forest status approximated through MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) derived NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) and NDII7 (Normalized Difference Infrared Index based on MODIS band 7) time series. Besides characterizing predominant forest temporal response to drought, we identified corresponding spatial footprints of drought impact, as well as examined aridity-related changes in forest phenology and biomass production. The latter was further evaluated in relation to forest type, elevation, aspect and slope. Recognized meteorological conditions highlighted: prolonged 2003–2007 mild to extreme drought, and overall regional drying tendencies. Arising remotely sensed forest responses accounted on localized decline in foliage water content and/or photosynthetic activity, but also indicated regions where forest condition improved despite the meteorological stress. Perceived variability in the forest response to drought conditions was governed by geographic location, species structure, elevation and exposition, and featured complexity of the alpine forest ecosystem. Among the inspected biophysical factors elevation had the strongest influence on forest phenology and green biomass production under meteorological stress conditions. Stands growing above 1400 m a.s.l. demonstrated initial increase in annual biomass growth at the beginning of the dry spell in 2003. Conversely, woodlands at lower altitudes comprising considerable share of hardwood species were more prone to biomass decline in 2003, but experienced an overall upturn in biomass production during the following years of the dry spell. Aspect showed moderate effect on drought-related phenology and green biomass production responses. Diverse forest ecosystem responses identified in this study were in line with known local and regional analyses, but also shed some new light on drought induced alternation of forest status. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remotely Sensing of Drought-Induced Forest Change and Recovery)

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