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Research article2019Peer reviewedOpen access

The Forest Observation System, building a global reference dataset for remote sensing of forest biomass

Schepaschenko, Dmitry; Chave, Jerome; Phillips, Oliver L.; Lewis, Simon L.; Davies, Stuart J.; Rejou-Mechain, Maxime; Sist, Plinio; Scipal, Klaus; Perger, Christoph; Herault, Bruno; Labriere, Nicolas; Hofhansl, Florian; Affum-Baffoe, Kofi; Aleinikov, Alexei; Alonso, Alfonso; Amani, Christian; Araujo-Murakami, Alejandro; Armston, John; Arroyo, Luzmila; Ascarrunz, Nataly; Azevedo, Celso; Baker, Timothy; Balazy, Radomir; Bedeau, Caroline; Berry, Nicholas; Bilous, Andrii M.; Bilous, Svitlana Yu.; Bissiengou, Pulcherie; Blanc, Lilian; Bobkova, Kapitolina S.; Braslavskaya, Tatyana; Brienen, Roel; Burslem, David F. R. P.; Condit, Richard; Cuni-Sanchez, Aida; Danilina, Dilshad; del Castillo Torres, Dennis; Derroire, Geraldine; Descroix, Laurent; Sotta, Eleneide Doff; d'Oliveira, Marcus V. N.; Dresel, Christopher; Erwin, Terry; Evdokimenko, Mikhail D.; Falck, Jan; Feldpausch, Ted R.; Foli, Ernest G.; Foster, Robin; Fritz, Steffen; Damian Garcia-Abril, Antonio; Gornov, Aleksey; Gornova, Maria; Gothard-Bassebe, Ernest; Gourlet-Fleury, Sylvie; Guedes, Marcelino; Hamer, Keith C.; Susanty, Farida Herry; Higuchi, Niro; Honorio Coronado, Euridice N.; Hubau, Wannes; Hubbell, Stephen; Ilstedt, Ulrik; Ivanov, Viktor V.; Kanashiro, Milton; Karlsson, Anders; Karminov, Viktor N.; Killeen, Timothy; Koffi, Jean-Claude Konan; Konovalova, Maria; Kraxner, Florian; Krejza, Jan; Krisnawati, Haruni; Krivobokov, Leonid V.; Kuznetsov, Mikhail A.; Lakyda, Ivan; Lakyda, Petro I.; Licona, Juan Carlos; Lucas, Richard M.; Lukina, Natalia; Lussetti, Daniel; Malhi, Yadvinder; Antonio Manzanera, Jose; Marimon, Beatriz; Marimon Junior, Ben Hur; Vasquez Martinez, Rodolfo; Martynenko, Olga V.; Matsala, Maksym; Matyashuk, Raisa K.; Mazzei, Lucas; Memiaghe, Herve; Mendoza, Casimiro; Monteagudo Mendoza, Abel; Moroziuk, Olga V.; Mukhortova, Liudmila; Musa, Samsudin; Nazimova, Dina I.; Okuda, Toshinori; Oliveira, Luis Claudio; Ontikov, Petr V.; Osipov, Andrey F.; Pietsch, Stephan; Playfair, Maureen; Poulsen, John; Radchenko, Vladimir G.; Rodney, Kenneth; Rozak, Andes H.; Ruschel, Ademir; Rutishauser, Ervan; See, Linda; Shchepashchenko, Maria; Shevchenko, Nikolay; Shvidenko, Anatoly; Silveira, Marcos; Singh, James; Sonke, Bonaventure; Souza, Cintia; Sterenczak, Krzysztof; Stonozhenko, Leonid; Sullivan, Martin J. P.; Szatniewska, Justyna; Aedoumg, Hermann T.; Ter Steege, Hans; Tikhonova, Elena; Toledo, Marisol; Trefilova, Olga V.; Valbuena, Ruben; Valenzuela Gamarra, Luis; Vasiliev, Sergey; Vedrova, Estella F.; Verhovets, Sergey V.; Vidal, Edson; Vladimirova, Nadezhda A.; Vleminckx, Jason; Vos, Vincent A.; Vozmitel, Foma K.; Wanek, Wolfgang; West, Thales A. P.; Woell, Hannsjorg; Woods, John T.; Wortel, Verginia; Yamada, Toshihiro; Hajar, Zamah Shari Nur; Zo-Bi, Irie Casimir
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Abstract

Forest biomass is an essential indicator for monitoring the Earth's ecosystems and climate. It is a critical input to greenhouse gas accounting, estimation of carbon losses and forest degradation, assessment of renewable energy potential, and for developing climate change mitigation policies such as REDD+, among others. Wall-to-wall mapping of aboveground biomass (AGB) is now possible with satellite remote sensing (RS). However, RS methods require extant, up-to-date, reliable, representative and comparable in situ data for calibration and validation. Here, we present the Forest Observation System (FOS) initiative, an international cooperation to establish and maintain a global in situ forest biomass database. AGB and canopy height estimates with their associated uncertainties are derived at a 0.25 ha scale from field measurements made in permanent research plots across the world's forests. All plot estimates are geolocated and have a size that allows for direct comparison with many RS measurements. The FOS offers the potential to improve the accuracy of RS- based biomass products while developing new synergies between the RS and ground-based ecosystem research communities.

Published in

Scientific Data
2019, Volume: 6, article number: 198
Publisher: NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP