Felippe Bruno Moreira, Dos Santos Luciano Ana Cláudia, Marin Fábio Ricardo, Ortega-Rodriguez Daigard Ricardo, de Oliveira Allison Queiroz, de Barros Ferraz Sílvio Frosini
Department of Forest Sciences, College of Agriculture "Luiz de Queiroz" (Esalq), University of São Paulo (USP), Av. Pádua Dias 11, Piracicaba, SP, Brazil.
Department of Biosystems Engineering, College of Agriculture "Luiz de Queiroz" (Esalq), University of São Paulo (USP), Av. Pádua Dias 11, Piracicaba, SP, Brazil.
Sci Total Environ. 2025 Apr 10;973:179146. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2025.179146. Epub 2025 Mar 18.
Characterizing microclimatic variables, such as vapor pressure deficit (VPD), is crucial for monitoring ecological processes and biodiversity dynamics of forests, among other terrestrial ecosystems. Approaches using technologies such as remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) have demonstrated potential for assessing the biophysical interface between forests and the atmosphere by obtaining high-resolution microclimatic metrics in space and time. In the present study, we developed a microclimatic approach based on VPD modeling to quantify the success of forest restoration in a tropical rainforest landscape. We used the photogrammetric technique Structure from Motion (SfM) with RPA to estimate three-dimensional forest structures and evaluated its influence in obtaining metrics for VPD modeling. A total of 30 plots of 314 m were analyzed at five stages of riparian forest development, including areas of early-stage passive restoration (E10, 10 years and E14, 14 years), mid-stage natural forest regeneration (M26, 26 years and M29, 29 years), and an old-growth forest (REF). These plots were used to calibrate and validate the VPD model (∼70 % training data and ∼ 30 % test data, with k = 10). Old-growth forests exhibited an average VPD of 0.19 kPa, lower than younger forests that exceeded the 1.0 kPa threshold. The 50th and 75th percentiles of the height distribution explained 86 % and 83 % of the variance in VPD (RMSE of 0.34 kPa), respectively, and demonstrated the potential use of this metric to predict the effects of forest structure on VPD. Results show that early-stage restoration sites are exposed to higher threshold limits of VPD, which can affect ecosystem functioning. Spatial characterization allows for identifying target areas for interventions, increasing our capacity to support better decisions in forest management.
表征微气候变量，如蒸气压亏缺（VPD），对于监测森林以及其他陆地生态系统的生态过程和生物多样性动态至关重要。使用诸如遥控飞机（RPA）等技术的方法已显示出通过在空间和时间上获取高分辨率微气候指标来评估森林与大气之间生物物理界面的潜力。在本研究中，我们开发了一种基于VPD建模的微气候方法，以量化热带雨林景观中森林恢复的成效。我们使用基于RPA的摄影测量技术运动结构（SfM）来估计三维森林结构，并评估其对获取VPD建模指标的影响。在河岸森林发育的五个阶段，共分析了30个面积为314平方米的样地，包括早期被动恢复区域（E10，10年和E14，14年）、中期天然林更新区域（M26，26年和M29，29年）以及一片老龄林（REF）。这些样地用于校准和验证VPD模型（约70%的训练数据和约30%的测试数据，k = 10）。老龄林的平均VPD为0.19千帕，低于超过1.0千帕阈值的较年轻森林。高度分布的第50和第75百分位数分别解释了VPD方差的86%和83%（均方根误差为0.34千帕），并证明了该指标在预测森林结构对VPD影响方面的潜在用途。结果表明，早期恢复地点暴露于更高的VPD阈值限制下，这可能会影响生态系统功能。空间表征有助于确定干预的目标区域，提高我们在森林管理中支持更好决策的能力。
