Using multi-platform LiDAR to guide the conservation of the world’s largest temperate woodland

Tommaso Jucker; Carl R. Gosper; Fabian J Fischer; Georg Wiehl; Paul B. Yeoh; Nat Raisbeck-Brown

doi:10.1016/j.rse.2023.113745

Using multi-platform LiDAR to guide the conservation of the world’s largest temperate woodland

Tommaso Jucker^*, Carl R. Gosper, Fabian J Fischer, Georg Wiehl, Paul B. Yeoh, Nat Raisbeck-Brown

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article (Academic Journal) › peer-review

16 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Australia's Great Western Woodlands are the largest intact temperate woodland ecosystem on Earth, spanning an area the size of the average European country. These woodlands are part of one of the world's biodiversity hotspots and, despite subsisting on just 200–400 mm of rainfall a year, can store considerable amounts of carbon. However, they face growing pressure from a combination of climate change and increasingly frequent and large wildfires, which have burned over a third of these slow-growing, fire-sensitive woodlands in last 50 years alone. To develop conservation strategies that bolster the long-term resilience of this unique ecosystem, we urgently need to understand how much old-growth woodland habitat remains intact and where it is distributed across this vast region. To tackle this challenge, we brought together data from an extensive network of field plots distributed across the region and combined this with information on vegetation 3D structure derived from drone, airborne and spaceborne LiDAR. Using this unique dataset, we developed a novel modelling framework to generate the first high-resolution maps of woodland tree size and age structure across the entire region. We found that 41.2% of the woodland habitat is covered by old-growth stands, equivalent to an area of approximately 39,187 km2. Only 10% of these old-growth woodlands fall within current protected areas managed by the state government. Instead, most remaining old-growth woodlands are found either within the Ngadju Indigenous Protected Area (26.9%) or outside of formal protected areas on leaseholds and privately owned lands (57.2%). Our maps of woodland size and age structure will help guide the targeted management and conservation of the Great Western Woodlands. Moreover, by developing a robust pipeline for integrating LiDAR data from multiple platforms, our study paves the way for mapping the 3D structure and carbon storage of open and heterogeneous woodland ecosystems from space.

Original language	English
Article number	113745
Journal	Remote Sensing of Environment
Volume	296
Early online date	31 Jul 2023
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2023.113745
Publication status	Published - 1 Oct 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We acknowledge and pay our respects to the First Nations people in the Great Western Woodlands on whose land this work was conducted, including the Ngadju native title area. The project was funded by a Western Australian State NRM grant to the Ngadju Conservation Aboriginal Corporation and CSIRO , and supported by the Australian Government through the TERN Great Western Woodlands Supersite. Airborne LiDAR was collected by Landgate (Western Australia's land information authority) under the Capture WA program with additional support from the Western Australian Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions Goldfields Region office. We thank the Ngadju Rangers and Native Title holders who assisted with fieldwork and project support, including Andrew Brown, Leslie Schultz and Darius Wicker, and are grateful to Michael Davy for helping with the acquisition of the UAV LiDAR data. TJ was supported by a UK NERC Independent Research Fellowship (grant: NE/S01537X/1 ).

Funding Information:
Suzanne Prober reports financial support was provided by Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation.We acknowledge and pay our respects to the First Nations people in the Great Western Woodlands on whose land this work was conducted, including the Ngadju native title area. The project was funded by a Western Australian State NRM grant to the Ngadju Conservation Aboriginal Corporation and CSIRO, and supported by the Australian Government through the TERN Great Western Woodlands Supersite. Airborne LiDAR was collected by Landgate (Western Australia's land information authority) under the Capture WA program with additional support from the Western Australian Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions Goldfields Region office. We thank the Ngadju Rangers and Native Title holders who assisted with fieldwork and project support, including Andrew Brown, Leslie Schultz and Darius Wicker, and are grateful to Michael Davy for helping with the acquisition of the UAV LiDAR data. TJ was supported by a UK NERC Independent Research Fellowship (grant: NE/S01537X/1).

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© 2023 The Authors

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title = "Using multi-platform LiDAR to guide the conservation of the world{\textquoteright}s largest temperate woodland",

abstract = "Australia's Great Western Woodlands are the largest intact temperate woodland ecosystem on Earth, spanning an area the size of the average European country. These woodlands are part of one of the world's biodiversity hotspots and, despite subsisting on just 200–400 mm of rainfall a year, can store considerable amounts of carbon. However, they face growing pressure from a combination of climate change and increasingly frequent and large wildfires, which have burned over a third of these slow-growing, fire-sensitive woodlands in last 50 years alone. To develop conservation strategies that bolster the long-term resilience of this unique ecosystem, we urgently need to understand how much old-growth woodland habitat remains intact and where it is distributed across this vast region. To tackle this challenge, we brought together data from an extensive network of field plots distributed across the region and combined this with information on vegetation 3D structure derived from drone, airborne and spaceborne LiDAR. Using this unique dataset, we developed a novel modelling framework to generate the first high-resolution maps of woodland tree size and age structure across the entire region. We found that 41.2% of the woodland habitat is covered by old-growth stands, equivalent to an area of approximately 39,187 km2. Only 10% of these old-growth woodlands fall within current protected areas managed by the state government. Instead, most remaining old-growth woodlands are found either within the Ngadju Indigenous Protected Area (26.9%) or outside of formal protected areas on leaseholds and privately owned lands (57.2%). Our maps of woodland size and age structure will help guide the targeted management and conservation of the Great Western Woodlands. Moreover, by developing a robust pipeline for integrating LiDAR data from multiple platforms, our study paves the way for mapping the 3D structure and carbon storage of open and heterogeneous woodland ecosystems from space.",

author = "Tommaso Jucker and Gosper, {Carl R.} and Fischer, {Fabian J} and Georg Wiehl and Yeoh, {Paul B.} and Nat Raisbeck-Brown",

note = "Funding Information: We acknowledge and pay our respects to the First Nations people in the Great Western Woodlands on whose land this work was conducted, including the Ngadju native title area. The project was funded by a Western Australian State NRM grant to the Ngadju Conservation Aboriginal Corporation and CSIRO , and supported by the Australian Government through the TERN Great Western Woodlands Supersite. Airborne LiDAR was collected by Landgate (Western Australia's land information authority) under the Capture WA program with additional support from the Western Australian Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions Goldfields Region office. We thank the Ngadju Rangers and Native Title holders who assisted with fieldwork and project support, including Andrew Brown, Leslie Schultz and Darius Wicker, and are grateful to Michael Davy for helping with the acquisition of the UAV LiDAR data. TJ was supported by a UK NERC Independent Research Fellowship (grant: NE/S01537X/1 ). Funding Information: Suzanne Prober reports financial support was provided by Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation.We acknowledge and pay our respects to the First Nations people in the Great Western Woodlands on whose land this work was conducted, including the Ngadju native title area. The project was funded by a Western Australian State NRM grant to the Ngadju Conservation Aboriginal Corporation and CSIRO, and supported by the Australian Government through the TERN Great Western Woodlands Supersite. Airborne LiDAR was collected by Landgate (Western Australia's land information authority) under the Capture WA program with additional support from the Western Australian Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions Goldfields Region office. We thank the Ngadju Rangers and Native Title holders who assisted with fieldwork and project support, including Andrew Brown, Leslie Schultz and Darius Wicker, and are grateful to Michael Davy for helping with the acquisition of the UAV LiDAR data. TJ was supported by a UK NERC Independent Research Fellowship (grant: NE/S01537X/1). Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2023 The Authors",

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AU - Yeoh, Paul B.

AU - Raisbeck-Brown, Nat

N1 - Funding Information: We acknowledge and pay our respects to the First Nations people in the Great Western Woodlands on whose land this work was conducted, including the Ngadju native title area. The project was funded by a Western Australian State NRM grant to the Ngadju Conservation Aboriginal Corporation and CSIRO , and supported by the Australian Government through the TERN Great Western Woodlands Supersite. Airborne LiDAR was collected by Landgate (Western Australia's land information authority) under the Capture WA program with additional support from the Western Australian Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions Goldfields Region office. We thank the Ngadju Rangers and Native Title holders who assisted with fieldwork and project support, including Andrew Brown, Leslie Schultz and Darius Wicker, and are grateful to Michael Davy for helping with the acquisition of the UAV LiDAR data. TJ was supported by a UK NERC Independent Research Fellowship (grant: NE/S01537X/1 ). Funding Information: Suzanne Prober reports financial support was provided by Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation.We acknowledge and pay our respects to the First Nations people in the Great Western Woodlands on whose land this work was conducted, including the Ngadju native title area. The project was funded by a Western Australian State NRM grant to the Ngadju Conservation Aboriginal Corporation and CSIRO, and supported by the Australian Government through the TERN Great Western Woodlands Supersite. Airborne LiDAR was collected by Landgate (Western Australia's land information authority) under the Capture WA program with additional support from the Western Australian Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions Goldfields Region office. We thank the Ngadju Rangers and Native Title holders who assisted with fieldwork and project support, including Andrew Brown, Leslie Schultz and Darius Wicker, and are grateful to Michael Davy for helping with the acquisition of the UAV LiDAR data. TJ was supported by a UK NERC Independent Research Fellowship (grant: NE/S01537X/1). Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Authors

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N2 - Australia's Great Western Woodlands are the largest intact temperate woodland ecosystem on Earth, spanning an area the size of the average European country. These woodlands are part of one of the world's biodiversity hotspots and, despite subsisting on just 200–400 mm of rainfall a year, can store considerable amounts of carbon. However, they face growing pressure from a combination of climate change and increasingly frequent and large wildfires, which have burned over a third of these slow-growing, fire-sensitive woodlands in last 50 years alone. To develop conservation strategies that bolster the long-term resilience of this unique ecosystem, we urgently need to understand how much old-growth woodland habitat remains intact and where it is distributed across this vast region. To tackle this challenge, we brought together data from an extensive network of field plots distributed across the region and combined this with information on vegetation 3D structure derived from drone, airborne and spaceborne LiDAR. Using this unique dataset, we developed a novel modelling framework to generate the first high-resolution maps of woodland tree size and age structure across the entire region. We found that 41.2% of the woodland habitat is covered by old-growth stands, equivalent to an area of approximately 39,187 km2. Only 10% of these old-growth woodlands fall within current protected areas managed by the state government. Instead, most remaining old-growth woodlands are found either within the Ngadju Indigenous Protected Area (26.9%) or outside of formal protected areas on leaseholds and privately owned lands (57.2%). Our maps of woodland size and age structure will help guide the targeted management and conservation of the Great Western Woodlands. Moreover, by developing a robust pipeline for integrating LiDAR data from multiple platforms, our study paves the way for mapping the 3D structure and carbon storage of open and heterogeneous woodland ecosystems from space.

AB - Australia's Great Western Woodlands are the largest intact temperate woodland ecosystem on Earth, spanning an area the size of the average European country. These woodlands are part of one of the world's biodiversity hotspots and, despite subsisting on just 200–400 mm of rainfall a year, can store considerable amounts of carbon. However, they face growing pressure from a combination of climate change and increasingly frequent and large wildfires, which have burned over a third of these slow-growing, fire-sensitive woodlands in last 50 years alone. To develop conservation strategies that bolster the long-term resilience of this unique ecosystem, we urgently need to understand how much old-growth woodland habitat remains intact and where it is distributed across this vast region. To tackle this challenge, we brought together data from an extensive network of field plots distributed across the region and combined this with information on vegetation 3D structure derived from drone, airborne and spaceborne LiDAR. Using this unique dataset, we developed a novel modelling framework to generate the first high-resolution maps of woodland tree size and age structure across the entire region. We found that 41.2% of the woodland habitat is covered by old-growth stands, equivalent to an area of approximately 39,187 km2. Only 10% of these old-growth woodlands fall within current protected areas managed by the state government. Instead, most remaining old-growth woodlands are found either within the Ngadju Indigenous Protected Area (26.9%) or outside of formal protected areas on leaseholds and privately owned lands (57.2%). Our maps of woodland size and age structure will help guide the targeted management and conservation of the Great Western Woodlands. Moreover, by developing a robust pipeline for integrating LiDAR data from multiple platforms, our study paves the way for mapping the 3D structure and carbon storage of open and heterogeneous woodland ecosystems from space.

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DO - 10.1016/j.rse.2023.113745

M3 - Article (Academic Journal)

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JO - Remote Sensing of Environment

JF - Remote Sensing of Environment

M1 - 113745

ER -

Using multi-platform LiDAR to guide the conservation of the world’s largest temperate woodland

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