Tracking canopy gap dynamics across four sites in the Brazilian Amazon

Background information to give context to the studyCanopy gaps are the most evident manifestation of how disturbances disrupt forest landscapes. The size distribution and return frequency of gaps, and subsequent recovery processes, determine whether the old-growth state can be reached.The aim or research questionWe used remote sensing metrics to compare the disturbance regime of four Amazon regions based on the size distribution of gaps, their dynamics and geometric characteristics.A brief summary of the methodology usedWe assessed gap dynamics at four sites in the central, central eastern, southeastern, and northeastern regions of the Brazilian Amazon using repeated airborne laser scanning surveys. We developed a novel analysis to quantify four possible stages of gap dynamics: formation, expansion, persisting and recovering. For that, we overlapped layers of gap locations from two consecutive airborne laser scanning surveys.Key results with some significance measuresThe gap fraction in our study sites varied between 1.26% to 7.84%. All the sites have similar proportion of gaps among size classes. What notably changed between sites was not the gap size-distribution, but the relative importance of stages of gap dynamics. Growing and persisting rates were greatest in the site with the stronger seasonal variation in climate, lower annual precipitation, higher mean wind speed and higher solar radiation.The conclusions, which address the main aimsThe concept of stability reflects the tendency of a system to quickly return to a position of equilibrium when disturbed. We showed that gap dynamics varied among sites, with one example of low recovery rate contrasted to three other sites with faster recovery. Our results support that such as assessing the size distribution of gaps, investigating their return frequency and severity is crucial for understanding forest dynamics at the landscape and regional scales.