Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721, USA.
Department of Forestry, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA.
Ecol Lett. 2015 Jul;18(7):636-45. doi: 10.1111/ele.12440. Epub 2015 May 11.
Forest biophysical structure - the arrangement and frequency of leaves and stems - emerges from growth, mortality and space filling dynamics, and may also influence those dynamics by structuring light environments. To investigate this interaction, we developed models that could use LiDAR remote sensing to link leaf area profiles with tree size distributions, comparing models which did not (metabolic scaling theory) and did allow light to influence this link. We found that a light environment-to-structure link was necessary to accurately simulate tree size distributions and canopy structure in two contrasting Amazon forests. Partitioning leaf area profiles into size-class components, we found that demographic rates were related to variation in light absorption, with mortality increasing relative to growth in higher light, consistent with a light environment feedback to size distributions. Combining LiDAR with models linking forest structure and demography offers a high-throughput approach to advance theory and investigate climate-relevant tropical forest change.
森林生物物理结构——叶片和茎干的排列和频率——由生长、死亡和空间填充动态产生，并且可能通过构建光照环境来影响这些动态。为了研究这种相互作用，我们开发了模型，可以使用激光雷达遥感将叶面积廓线与树木大小分布联系起来，比较了不允许（代谢缩放理论）和允许光照影响这种联系的模型。我们发现，在两个具有代表性的亚马逊森林中，要准确模拟树木大小分布和冠层结构，必须建立光照环境与结构之间的联系。我们将叶面积廓线划分为大小类成分，发现死亡率与光吸收的变化有关，在较高的光下，死亡率相对于生长率增加，这与对大小分布的光照环境反馈一致。将激光雷达与连接森林结构和种群动态的模型相结合，为推进理论和研究与气候相关的热带森林变化提供了一种高通量的方法。
