Grace Jopaul Loubota Panzou

• PhD
• Professor (Assistant) at Université Denis SASSOU-N'GUESSO

Trees can differ enormously in their crown architectural traits, such as the scaling relationships between tree height, crown width and stem diameter. Yet despite the importance of crown architecture in shaping the structure and function of terrestrial ecosystems, we lack a complete picture of what drives this incredible diversity in crown shapes....

Lianas are important components of tropical forest diversity and dynamics, yet little is known about the drivers of their community structure and composition. Combining extensive field and LiDAR data, we investigated the influence of local topography, forest structure, and tree composition on liana community structure, and their floristic and funct...

Trees can differ enormously in their crown architectural traits, such as the scaling relationships that link their height and crown size to their stem diameter. Yet despite the importance of crown architecture in shaping the structure and function of woody ecosystems, we lack a complete picture of what drives this incredible diversity in crown shap...

Lianas are important components of tropical forest diversity and dynamics, yet little is known about the drivers of their community structure and composition. Combining extensive field and LiDAR data, we investigated the influence of local topography, forest structure and tree composition on liana community structure and composition in a moist fore...

A better understanding of the natural regeneration in tropical forests could help develop more effective restoration strategies. This study examined relationships in structural and diversity attributes of natural regeneration in five forest fallow ages after slash-and-burn agriculture (6 months, 2 years, 5 years, 10 years, and 15 years) in the Repu...

The world’s largest tropical peatland lies in the central Congo Basin. Raphia laurentii De Wild, the most abundant palm in these peatlands, forms dominant to mono-dominant stands across approximately 45% of the peatland area. R. laurentii is a trunkless palm with fronds up to 20 m long. Owing to its morphology, there is currently no allometric equa...

Lianas can create dense foliage that reduces the light available for the host trees on which they grow and can directly damage the host trees during their development. A better estimation of liana load and understanding of the determinants and impacts of liana load in tropical forests are both important in community ecology and ecosystem science. T...

The worlds largest tropical peatland lies in the central Congo Basin. Raphia laurentii De Wild. is a palm which forms dominant to mono-dominant stands across ca. 45 % of the peatland area. However, a lack of allometric equation for this canopy-forming trunkless palm with fronds up to 20 m long, means that this it is currently excluded from abovegro...

Data capturing multiple axes of tree size and shape, such as a tree's stem diameter, height and crown size, underpin a wide range of ecological research—from developing and testing theory on forest structure and dynamics, to estimating forest carbon stocks and their uncertainties, and integrating remote sensing imagery into forest monitoring progra...

Reliable tree height-diameter (H-D) allometric equations are a key tool for the estimation of forest productivity and Above Ground Biomass (AGB). Most existing H-D allometric equations developed for the tropical region are based on large-scale multi-species datasets, and their use to derive information on productivity and AGB at the species level i...

Effective adaptability of plants to new environments can be analysed in terms of survival rate. Analysing the traits that favour adaptation to environmental changes provides a more in-depth understanding of the mechanisms involved. Local adaptation occurs because different environmental factors exert selective pressure across habitats. Understandin...

There is increasing interest in altitude effects on structural attributes and aboveground biomass (AGB) in tropical forests. However, we continue to lack a clear understanding of relationships between structural attributes and AGB along altitudinal gradients in Central Africa. Using a new network of 76 permanent plots of 0.5 ha, the relationships b...

Common allometric patterns have been reported across the tropics and good performance on independent data was retrieved for the most recent pantropical model predicting tree aboveground biomass (AGB) from stem diameter, wood density and total height. General models are undoubtedly useful for the estimation and monitoring of biomass and carbon stock...

African monodominant forests are frequently formed by Gilbertiodendron dewevrei (De Wild.) J. Leonard and commonly found close to mixed forests. However, previous studies have ignored differences between these two forest types in height-diameter allometry, which is extremely important for aboveground biomass (AGB) estimates. This study aims to eval...

Aim Tree crowns determine light interception, carbon and water exchange. Thus, understanding the factors causing tree crown allometry to vary at the tree and stand level matters greatly for the development of future vegetation modelling and for the calibration of remote sensing products. Nevertheless, we know little about large‐scale variation and...

Background: Adaptation is not only effective by considering the survival of plants, but also by taking into account the traits that support adaptation to environmental changing. Local adaptation occurs because different environmental factors impose different selective pressures across habitats. Understanding the ecophysiological mechanisms underlyi...

Ground measurements of tree crowns are challenging, time consuming, and require consideration for the large variation their position, shape, and size. Here, we outline the protocol used to estimate crown dimensions for pantropical analyses (Loubota Panzou et al. in review) and for data archived with the online forest plot data repository and analyt...

Quantifier les stocks de biomasse et de carbone dans les forêts tropicales est essentiel pour la mise en œuvre des stratégies d’atténuation des changements climatiques, et notamment le mécanisme de réduction des émissions dues à la déforestation et la dégradation des forêts. Les scientifiques s’accordent aujourd’hui à utiliser une équation allométr...

Quantifier les stocks de biomasse et de carbone dans les forêts tropicales est essentiel pour la mise en oeuvre des stratégies d’atténuation des changements climatiques, et notamment le mécanisme de réduction des émissions dues à la déforestation et la dégradation (REDD+). Les scientifiques s’accordent aujourd’hui à utiliser une équation allométriq...

Tropical forests play a key role in regulating the terrestrial carbon cycle and climate change by storing a large amount of carbon. Yet, there is considerable uncertainty about the amount and spatial variation of aboveground biomass (AGB), especially in the relatively less studied African tropical forests. In this study, we explore the local-scale...

Architectural traits that determine the light captured in a given environment are an important aspect of the life‐history strategies of tropical tree species. In this study, we examined how interspecific variation in architectural traits is related to the functional traits of 45 coexisting tree species in Central Africa. At the tree level, we measu...

Biomass and carbon stocks of tropical African forests. A review Introduction. Quantifying the biomass and carbon stocks contained in tropical forests has become an international priority for the implementation of the REDD+ mechanism. Forest biomass is estimated at three successive levels: the tree, the stand and the region level. This paper review...

Introduction. Quantifying the biomass and carbon stocks contained in tropical forests has become an international priority for the implementation of the REDD+ mechanism. Forest biomass is estimated at three successive levels: the tree, the stand and the region level. This paper reviews the state of the art regarding the estimation of biomass and ca...

In this study we aimed to identify the variation in height-diameter allometry between forest types and among species in Central African moist forests. We also examined the consequences on biomass estimation. Two forest sites in southern Cameroon with contrasting levels of deciduousness. Height and diameter were measured for a total of 521 trees bel...