A5081500144- Land Use and Ecosystem Services
- Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies
- Remote Sensing in Agriculture
- Conservation, Biodiversity, and Resource Management
- Species Distribution and Climate Change
- Remote Sensing and LiDAR Applications
- Wildlife-Road Interactions and Conservation
- Wildlife Ecology and Conservation
- Plant and animal studies
- Fish Ecology and Management Studies
- Remote Sensing and Land Use
- Freshwater macroinvertebrate diversity and ecology
- Fire effects on ecosystems
- Soil and Land Suitability Analysis
- Forest Management and Policy
- Scarabaeidae Beetle Taxonomy and Biogeography
- Forest ecology and management
- Tree-ring climate responses
- Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics
- Sustainable Agricultural Systems Analysis
Deakin University
2020-2024
Universidad de Las Américas
2020-2023
Computational and data handling limitations have constrained time-series analyses of land-cover change at high-spatial resolution over large (e.g., continental) extents. However, a new set cloud-computing services offer an opportunity for improving knowledge land finer grain. We constructed historical seven high-resolution wall-to-wall maps continental scale Australia analyzed temporal spatial changes from 1985 to 2015 5-year time-steps using Google Earth Engine (GEE). used 281,962 Landsat...
Our knowledge about the structure and function of Andean forests at regional scales remains limited. Current initiatives to study over continental or global still have important geographical gaps, particularly in regions such as tropical subtropical Andes. In this study, we assessed patterns tree species diversity along ~ 4000 km latitude m elevation range forests. We used Forest Network (Red de Bosques Andinos, https://redbosques.condesan.org/) database which, present, includes 491 forest...
State-of-the-art cloud computing platforms such as Google Earth Engine (GEE) enable regional-to-global land cover and change mapping with machine learning algorithms. However, collection of high-quality training data, which is necessary for accurate mapping, remains costly labor-intensive. To address this need, we created a global database nearly 2 million units spanning the period from 1984 to 2020 seven primary nine secondary classes. Our data approach leveraged GEE algorithms ensure...
It is largely unknown how South America's Andean forests affect the global carbon cycle, and thus regulate climate change. Here, we measure aboveground dynamics over past two decades in 119 monitoring plots spanning a range of >3000 m elevation across subtropical tropical Andes. Our results show that act as strong sinks for (0.67 ± 0.08 Mg C ha-1 y-1) have high potential to serve future refuges. Aboveground are driven by abiotic biotic factors, such size-dependent mortality trees. The...
Zarbá, L., M. Piquer-Rodríguez, S. Boillat, C. Levers, I. Gasparri, T. Aide, N. L. Álvarez-Berríos, O. Anderson, E. Araoz, Arima, Batistella, Calderón-Loor, Echeverría, Gonzalez-Roglich, G. Jobbágy, S.-L. Mathez-Stiefel, Ramirez-Reyes, A. Pacheco, Vallejos, K. R. Young, and Grau. 2022. Mapping characterizing social-ecological land systems of South America. Ecology Society 27(2):27. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-13066-270227
Background Plot-based monitoring has yielded much information on the taxonomic diversity and carbon (C) storage in tropical lowland forests of Amazon basin. This resulted an improved understanding relationship between forest biomass dynamics global change drivers, such as climate atmospheric CO2 concentration. Much less attention been paid to mountain ecosystems South America that comprise montane alpine vegetation (páramo, puna, high Andean grasslands, wetlands, heath). complex provides a...
Aquatic insects in the order Trichoptera are extremely diverse number of species and their trophic roles. However, distribution diversity patterns poorly known Neotropics, including restricted to tropical mountain ecosystems. Recent studies mountains have shown high levels endemism aquatic changes composition communities over short distances. Still, incidence environmental filters that explain such has not been addressed quantitatively. Given relevance understanding spatial prioritize...
Few studies exist that document how high-elevation Andean ecosystems recover naturally after the cessation of human activities and this can limit implementation cost-effective restoration actions. We assessed forest (Polylepis stands) páramo grassland recovery along an elevation gradient (3,600–4,350 m.a.s.l.) in Yanacocha Reserve (Ecuador) where natural has been allowed since 1995. Within 2012 2014 aboveground biomass (AGB), necromass (AGN) belowground (BGB) carbon (C) stocks were measured...
Predicting future land change is crucial in anticipating societal and environmental impacts informing responses at different scales. We designed an integrated, high-resolution, land-change model forecasted Australia's for the years 2020, 2025 2030 Cropland, Forest, Grassland, Built-up land-uses using cloud-based high-performance computing. A spatially explicit set of drivers was fed into a random forest classifier to generate 30-m per-class suitability layers country, which were then used...
(1) Background: Tropical Mountain forests (TMF) constitute a threatened major carbon sink due to deforestation. Carbon compensation projects could significantly aid in preserving these ecosystems. Consequently, we need better understanding of the above-ground (AGC) spatial distribution TMFs provide project developers with accurate estimations their mitigation potential; (2) Methods: integrating field measurements and remote sensing data into random forest (RF) modelling framework, present...
Patterns of species diversity have been associated with changes in climate across latitude and elevation. However, the ecological evolutionary mechanisms underlying these relationships are still actively debated. Here, we present a complementary view well-known tropical niche conservatism (TNC) hypothesis, termed multiple zones origin (MZO) to explore latitudinal elevational gradients phylogenetic tree communities. The TNC hypothesis posits that most lineages originate warmer, wetter, less...
The Napo Moist Forest Ecoregion contains an extensive network of healthy, free-flowing rivers, creating a dynamic mosaic seasonal and permanent flooding areas that fluctuate with the hydrological season are primary importance for sustaining fish diversity. However, ongoing global environmental changes, including deforestation, dam construction climate anomalies, disrupt flood pulse threaten connectivity between floodplain main river channels. This study informs freshwater conservation by...
Predicting future land change is crucial in anticipating societal and environmental impacts informing responses. We developed an integrated, high resolution, land-change model forecasted continental for Australia the years 2020, 2025 2030 Cropland, Forest, Grassland, Built-up land-uses. combined a set of drivers trained land-use suitability models using random forest classifier. Thirty-meter per-class layers were generated country used allocating land-use. Land-use was first projected 2015...