Stronger conservation promotes mangrove biomass accumulation: Insights from spatially explicit assessments using UAV and Landsat data

Abstract

AbstractChinese mangroves have been recovered in area over the past two decades from previous declining trend, and about half of existing mangroves are still in their young growth stage. This provides a unique opportunity to assess mangrove conservation by examining the growth dynamics of young mangroves over different conservation periods. However, we are currently short of effective assessment tools for spatially explicit quantification of mangrove conservation effects. To fill up this gap, we proposed a novel remote sensing approach using readily available unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) and Landsat enhanced vegetation index (EVI) data to assess the spatial evolution of aboveground biomass (AGB) of young mangroves. With the space‐for‐time hypothesis, the approach implemented with an empirical EVI‐height‐AGB equation was tested in four subtropical estuarine mangroves in the southeastern coast of China. The results indicated: (a) the UAV‐based Structure from Motion (SfM) technology served as an effective and low‐cost means for capturing the spatial heterogeneity of mangrove canopy heights; (b) a maximum stand age of 15 years could be used to define the young growth stage of mangroves, for which the EVI‐height relationships could be described by exponential equations without suffering significant spectral saturation effects; (c) mangrove forests had overall faster annual AGB accumulation during the young growth stage over the post‐2000 versus pre‐2000 conservation period. This study is one of the first attempts to develop a remote sensing approach for quantifying spatially explicit AGB accumulation rates of young mangroves. It highlights the practicability and advantage of the UAV‐SfM technology and confirms that stronger conservation efforts promote mangrove AGB accumulation over the past two decades. The developed EVI‐height‐AGB framework fueled with readily available UAV and Landsat data provides a unique tool for assessing mangrove conservation effects from landscape to regional scales.