Assessment of tropical forest structure, ecological networks, and species extinction in Nigeria lowland forest and Cameroun coastal lowland forest
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Tropical forest structure is a significant defining component of the forest, the complex interaction within the components supports a substantial population of flora and fauna besides storing more than half of the terrestrial aboveground biomass. Furthermore, the plants and animal species habiting the tropical forest make up one-third of the world`s biodiversity which also functions as a buffer in shielding humans from zoonotic diseases such as COVID-19. The research was carried out in the Cross River-Korup Taka Manda (CRIKOT) National Park and Omo-Sasha-Oluwa Forest Complex ecoregion which covers southern Nigeria, and southwestern Cameroon. The study estimated carbon stock estimates from 3 -meter quad polarized ALOS 2 PALSAR 2 data, validated the estimates with field measurements and biophysical metrics derived from the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) L2B lidar waveform. This is in addition to the investigation of ecological networks with canopy height metrics, canopy cover metrics Plant Area Diversity (PAD), and Plant Area Index (PAI). The study discovered a mean carbon stock estimate of 136 tonnes /ha-1 from field measurements and a range of 1. 5 to 132 tonnes / ha-1 from SAR. The biophysical metrics from GEDI L2B lidar waveform (Canopy Cover, PAD, PAI, and Canopy Height) describe dense structures with a high level of biodiversity and productivity. These findings could aid in the monitoring of forest productivity and policy goals, as well as considerably improve the depiction of plant canopies in dynamic vegetation and land surface models, allowing us to better understand the carbon cycle and ecological systems.
Keywords: Tropical Forest structure, Climate change, Biodiversity conservation, Deforestation and forest degradation, Zoonotic disease, Human health, and well-being.
ID: 3476824