Abstract
This work is focused on characterizing and understanding the aboveground biomass of Caatinga in a semiarid region in northeastern Brazil. The quantification of Caatinga biomass is limited by the small number of field plots, which are inadequate for addressing the biome's extreme heterogeneity. Satellite-derived biomass products can address spatial and temporal changes but they have not been validated for seasonally dry tropical forests. Here we combine a compilation of published field phytosociological observations with a new 30m spatial resolution satellite biomass product. Both data were significantly correlated, satellite estimates consistently captured the wide variability of the biomass across the different physiognomies (2-272 Mg/ha). Based on the satellite product we show that in year 2000 about 50 percent of the region had very low biomass (<2 Mg/ha) and that the majority of the biomass (86%) is concentrated in only 27% of the area. Our work confirm other estimates of biomass 39 Mg/ha (9-61 Mg/ha) and carbon 0.79 PgC. The satellite products together with ground based estimates has the potential to improve forest management in Caatinga and other seasonally dry tropical forests through improved approximation of spatial variability, how they relate to climate, and support numerical modeling experiments in semiarid regions.
Highlights
It is estimated that seasonally dry tropical forests largest continuous area is found in the semiarid region in northeastern Brazil called Caatinga (Miles et al 2006)
We present the results of the Caatingaspecific allometric equation (Sampaio & Silva 2005), because it was defined based on local forest and is the one mostly used by the scientific community of the Caatinga
The results show high biomass variability within each physiognomy (Figure 5), the complexity of the Caatinga biomass can be summarized by three factors (Figure 8)
Summary
It is estimated that seasonally dry tropical forests largest continuous area is found in the semiarid region in northeastern Brazil called Caatinga (Miles et al 2006). The Caatinga environment has for centuries been subject to cycles of land conversion, abandonment, and regrowth. A clearer understanding of the spatial distribution of Caatinga vegetation and its properties, biomass, is essential for strategic development planning, preservation of the biome functions, human services, and biodiversity (Miles et al 2006). The region is characterized by highly heterogeneous vegetation and land use, and as a result extrapolation from the small-scale sparse field data alone does not accurately characterize the landscape. A larger scale monitoring tool with high spatial resolution, such as satellite biomass product, is essential for achieving better biomass estimates (Adams 1999). We analyze a high resolution map and quantify the biomass of the Caatinga
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