Miombo woodland is a forest ecosystem that covers a large part of Eastern and Southern Africa including the southeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Across this wide geographic coverage, rainfall and fire have been identified as the main environmental drivers influencing the distribution, composition, and vertical structure. However, the forest overstory-understory relationship has been scarcely explored. Most forest models in Miombo woodland have focused on the dominant vegetation neglecting the understory vegetation despite several ecological functions that it plays in the forest ecosystems.
This project will build up from a selection of tools and data including in situ data and remotely sensed data such as Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data such as Airborne LiDAR Scanning, Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) full-waveform LiDAR.
This combination will allow along with rainfall and fire disturbance gradient (1) to describe the vertical structure of Miombo woodland; (2) to evaluate the potential of GEDI to estimate the vertical structure of Miombo woodland; (3) to estimate the total, understory and overstory above-ground biomass of Miombo woodland. This will contribute to understanding the complete vertical structure of Miombo woodland and the overstory-understory relationship along rainfall and fire disturbance gradients.
This award was supported by JRS Biodiversity.