Human and natural controls of the variation in aboveground tree biomass in African dry tropical forests.

Understanding the anthropogenic and natural controls that affect the patterns, distribution, and dynamics of terrestrial carbon is crucial to meeting climate change mitigation objectives. We assessed the human and natural controls over aboveground tree biomass density in African dry tropical forests, using Zambia's first nationwide forest inventory. We identified predictors that best explain the variation in biomass density, contrasted anthropogenic and natural sites at different spatial scales, and compared sites with different stand structure characteristics and species composition.

Will Passive Protection Save Congo Forests?

Central Africa's tropical forests are among the world's largest carbon reserves. Historically, they have experienced low rates of deforestation. Pressures to clear land are increasing due to development of infrastructure and livelihoods, foreign investment in agriculture, and shifting land use management, particularly in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Ten ways remote sensing can contribute to conservation.

In an effort to increase conservation effectiveness through the use of Earth observation technologies, a group of remote sensing scientists affiliated with government and academic institutions and conservation organizations identified 10 questions in conservation for which the potential to be answered would be greatly increased by use of remotely sensed data and analyses of those data. Our goals were to increase conservation practitioners' use of remote sensing to support their work, increase collaboration between the conservation science and remote sensing communities, identify and develop new and innovative uses of remote sensing for advancing conservation science, provide guidance to space agencies on how future satellite missions can support conservation science, and generate support from the public and private sector in the use of remote sensing data to address the 10 conservation questions. We identified a broad initial list of questions on the basis of an email chain-referral survey.

Mapping and monitoring carbon stocks with satellite observations: a comparison of methods.

Mapping and monitoring carbon stocks in forested regions of the world, particularly the tropics, has attracted a great deal of attention in recent years as deforestation and forest degradation account for up to 30% of anthropogenic carbon emissions, and are now included in climate change negotiations. We review the potential for satellites to measure carbon stocks, specifically aboveground biomass (AGB), and provide an overview of a range of approaches that have been developed and used to map AGB across a diverse set of conditions and geographic areas. We provide a summary of types of remote sensing measurements relevant to mapping AGB, and assess the relative merits and limitations of each.

Comparing ape densities and habitats in northern Congo: surveys of sympatric gorillas and chimpanzees in the Odzala and Ndoki regions.

The conservation status of western lowland gorillas and central chimpanzees in western equatorial Africa remains largely speculative because many remote areas have never been surveyed and the impact of emergent diseases in the region has not been well documented. In this study, we compared ape densities and habitats in the Lokoué study area in Odzala National Park and the Goualougo Triangle in Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park in northern Republic of Congo. Both of these sites have long been considered strongholds for the conservation of chimpanzees and gorillas, but supposedly differ in vegetative composition and relative ape abundance.

Expansion of industrial logging in Central Africa.

Industrial logging has become the most extensive land use in Central Africa, with more than 600,000 square kilometers (30%) of forest currently under concession. With use of a time series of satellite imagery for the period from 1976 to 2003, we measured 51,916 kilometers of new logging roads. The density of roads across the forested region was 0.