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Publications
Publications (31)
Hyperspectral remote sensing across multiple spatio-temporal scales allows for mapping and monitoring mangrove habitats to support urgent conservation efforts. The use of hyperspectral imagery for assessing mangroves is less common than for terrestrial forest ecosystems. In this study, two well-known measures in statistical physics, Mean Informatio...
Across the tropics, recent agricultural shifts have led to a rapid expansion of tree plantations, often into intact forest and grassland habitats. However, this expansion is poorly characterized. Here we report tropical tree plantation expansion between 2000 and 2012, based on classifying nearly 7 million unique patches of observed tree cover gain...
The Caribbean is home to over 20 passerine species listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered. The Bahama Oriole (Icterus northropi) is listed as critically endangered and is now restricted to Andros, a single island complex in The Bahamas. We investigated this species' habitat us...
Global tree cover products face challenges in accurately predicting tree cover across biophysical gradients, such as precipitation or agricultural cover. To generate a natural forest cover map for Costa Rica, biases in tree cover estimation in the most widely used tree cover product (the Global Forest Change product (GFC) were quantified and correc...
COVID‐19 has impacted humanity and the global environment in myriad ways, and more changes are on the horizon. Here we consider the impact of COVID‐19 on our collective ability to restore degraded habitats and facilitate forest recovery in the tropics.
Drone-based remote sensing is a promising new technology that combines the benefits of ground-based and satellite-derived forest monitoring by collecting fine-scale data over relatively large areas in a cost-effective manner. Here, we explore the potential of the GatorEye drone-lidar system to monitor tropical forest succession by canopy structural...
Two recent global maps of tree restoration potential have identified vast regions where tree cover could be increased, ranging from 0.9 to 2.3 billion hectares. Both maps, however, emphasized dryland regions, with arid biomes making up 36%–42% of potential restoration area. Dryland biomes have repeatedly been recognized as inappropriate regions for...
Malnutrition linked to poor quality diets affects at least 2 billion people. Forests, as well as agricultural systems linked to trees, are key sources of dietary diversity in rural settings. In the present article, we develop conceptual links between diet diversity and forested landscape mosaics within the rural tropics. First, we summarize the sta...
Numerous countries have made voluntary commitments to conduct forest landscape restoration over millions of hectares of degraded land in the coming decade. We consider the relative likelihood these countries will achieve their restoration commitments. Across countries, the area committed to restoration increased with existing forest and plantation...
Global tree cover products are widely used in analyses of deforestation, fragmentation, and connectivity, but are rarely critically assessed. Inaccuracies in these products could have consequences for future decision making, especially in data-poor regions like the tropics. In this study, potential biases in global and regional tree cover products...
Sustainable forest management is hugely dependent on high-quality estimates of forest site productivity, but it is challenging to generate productivity maps over large areas. We present a method for generating site index (a measure of such forest productivity) maps for plantation loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) forests over large areas in the southe...
The southeastern U.S. produces the most industrial roundwood in the U.S. each year, largely from commercial pine plantations. The extent of plantation forests and management dynamics can be difficult to ascertain from periodic forest inventories, yet short-rotation tree plantations also present challenges for remote sensing. Here, we integrated spe...
Secondary forests are increasingly recognized for conserving biodiversity and mitigating global climate change, but these and other desired outcomes can only be achieved after decades of regeneration, and secondary forests are frequently recleared before they recover to predisturbance conditions. We used a time series of aerial photographs (1947‐20...
Several recent meta-analyses have aimed to determine whether natural regeneration is more effective at recovering tropical forests than active restoration (for example, tree planting). We reviewed this literature and found that comparisons between strategies are biased by positive site selection. Studies of natural forest regeneration are generally...
Why do some restored ecosystems persist for centuries while others are quickly converted to alternative land uses or land covers? We propose that restored ecosystems have a temporal dimension that is variable, often finite, and likely predictable to some extent based on attributes of stakeholders, environment, and governance. The longevity of a res...
The effects of fragmented landscapes on tropical bird movements remain poorly understood, partly due to a dearth of experimental tests of gap crossing behavior. To learn more about the factors involved in gap crossing behavior, we used predator‐playback experiments on four species of understory‐insectivore birds (Chestnut‐backed Antbird Poliocrania...
Background
Assembly of species into communities following human disturbance (e.g., deforestation, fragmentation) may be governed by spatial (e.g., dispersal) or environmental (e.g., niche partitioning) mechanisms. Variation partitioning has been used to broadly disentangle spatial and environmental mechanisms, and approaches utilizing functional an...
Results from three weighted least-square regressions using environmental and spatial predictors for species composition, functional dispersion or phylogenetic dispersion
Protocol of data collection, geographic location and general description of sampling sites, dates of data collection, site-by-species abundance matrices for the dry season and wet season of 2010, and species trait data
Results from variation partitioning for functional or phylogenetic composition
Summary of landscape characteristics in the Caribbean lowlands of Costa Rica
Results from variation partitioning for functional dispersion based on different niche axes
Spatial autocorrelation of functional or phylogenetic dispersion
Spatial autocorrelation of landscape characteristics at each of three focal scales
Proportion of functional or phylogenetic variation due to composition or due to dispersion
