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Forest Inventories and DBH at Burned and Unburned Forest Sites, Acre, Brazil, 2017

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Documentation Revision Date: 2018-12-20

Data Set Version: 1

Summary

This data set provides measurements of diameter at breast height (DBH) and species identification at four forest sites in the eastern side of Acre, Brazil including Bonal (A), Catuaba (B), Humaita (C) and Transacreana (D). The inventory locations include forests burned in 2005 and 2010 and nearby unburned areas. Inventory surveys were conducted in October and December 2017.

There are two data files with this dataset; one file of survey data in comma-separated format (.csv) and one compressed shapefile (.zip) with measurement plot locations. The plot locations are also provided as a companion file in .kmz format for viewing in Google Earth.

Figure 1. Photos taken in 2017 of Bonal measurement area (Area A, Transect 8, burned 2005) and Catuaba area (Area B, unburned). Photos courtesy of I. Numata.

Citation

Numata, I., S.S. da Silva, and M.A. Cochrane. 2018. Forest Inventories and DBH at Burned and Unburned Forest Sites, Acre, Brazil, 2017. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1654

Table of Contents

  1. Data Set Overview
  2. Data Characteristics
  3. Application and Derivation
  4. Quality Assessment
  5. Data Acquisition, Materials, and Methods
  6. Data Access
  7. References

Data Set Overview

This data set provides measurements of diameter at breast height (DBH) and species identification at four forest sites in the eastern side of Acre, Brazil including Bonal (A), Catuaba (B), Humaita (C) and Transacreana (D). The inventory locations include forests burned in 2005 and 2010 and nearby unburned areas. Inventory surveys were conducted in October and December 2017.

Related Data Sets:

Numata, I., M.A. Cochrane, J. Kjaersgaard, and S.S. da Silva. 2018. Forest Inventories at Burned and Unburned Tropical Forest Sites, Acre, Brazil, 2014. ORNL DAAC, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA. https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1563

Acknowledgements:

This work was supported by the NASA Terrestrial Ecology program, Grant number: NNX14AD56G

Data Characteristics

Spatial Coverage:  Four sites in Eastern Acre, Brazil

Spatial Resolution: Multiple points

Temporal Coverage: Surveys were conducted in October and December 2017

Temporal Resolution: One time sampling

Study Area (coordinates in decimal degrees)

Site Westernmost Longitude Easternmost Longitude Northernmost Latitude Southernmost Latitude
Eastern Acre, Brazil -68.147738 -67.281765 -9.754178 -10.083254

 

Data File Information

There are two data files with this dataset: one file of survey data in comma-separated format (.csv) and one compressed shapefile (.zip) with measurement plot locations. The plot locations are also provided as a companion file in .kmz format for viewing in Google Earth. Two study area photos are also provided as companion files.

Table 1. File names and descriptions

File name Description
Forest_Inventory_Acre_2017.csv This file provides the plot sizes, description (burned or unburned), diameter at breast height (dbh), and forest inventories with scientific and family names
acre_forest_inventory_plots_2017.zip A shapefile with the plot location information
   Companion files  
acre_forest_inventory_plots_2017.kmz The plot locations provided in kmz fomat for viewing in Google Earth
Bonal_unburned_area.JPG Photo of the Bonal unburned study site
Catuaba_unburned_area1.JPG Photo of the Catuaba area 1 unburned study site

 

Table 2. Variables in the file Forest_Inventory_Acre_2017.csv

Column Heading Unit/Format Description
area   Identification of inventoried areas by name
area_code   Identification of inventoried area by code (matches shape file)
sampling_date YYYY-MM-DD Sampling date 
transect   The transect ID number within an area.
plot   The plot ID number within a transect
plot_size   Plot dimensions
easting UTM Plot center location in UTM (easting)
southing UTM Plot center location in UTM (northing)
latitude Decimal degrees Latitude of plot center
longitude Decimal degrees Longitude of pot center
burned_2005   Binary code where 1 indicates plot burned in 2005
burned_2010   Binary code where 1 indicates plot burned in 2010
unburned   Binary code where 1 indicates plot did not burn
dbh cm Diameter at Breast Height, 1.3m above the ground
live_dead   Binary code where 1 indicates live stem
life_form   Stems are identified as tree or liana
scientific name   Scientific name of tree. Some “Not identified”
family   Family name of tree. Some “Not identified”

 

User notes:

  • At the Bonal site, Transect 05, (Area A in Figure 1) plot 1 was completely cleared before the inventory could take place, therefore, the data for Transect 05 begin with plot 2.
  • At the Bonal site, the transects of 2017 were in the same general location as the transects from previous inventories conducted in 2014 (see https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1563), but for this study the size (larger) and the number (smaller) of the plots were different from those of 2014. The measurements are new, and do not represent repeat measurements from 2014.

 

Properties of the Shapefile

Projection: SIRGAS 2000 UTM Zone 19S

GEOGCS: GCS SIRGAS 2000

DATUM: Sistema de Referencia Geocentrico para las AmericaS 2000

SPHEROID: GRS 1980, 6378137.0, 298.257222101

PRIMEM: Greenwich, 0.0

UNIT: Degree, 0.0174532925199433

PROJECTION: Transverse Mercator

PARAMETER: False Easting, 500000.0

PARAMETER: False Northing, 10000000.0

PARAMETER: Central Meridian, -69.0

PARAMETER: Scale Factor, 0.9996

PARAMETER: Latitude of Origin, 0.0

UNIT: Meter, 1.0

Application and Derivation

These data can be used to characterize the post-fire recovery of forest sites from wildfires in 2005 and 2010 and the impact of fire frequency (once, twice, and unburned) on forest structure and species composition.

Quality Assessment

Sampled stems were classified as live or dead and botanically identified to species or higher taxon (genus or family) level by two botanists.

Data Acquisition, Materials, and Methods

Site Description

The study was focused on the eastern side of Acre (Figure 2) where intensive forest cover change has occurred, and remnant forests are highly fragmented. The climate type is Awi (Köppen), with annual precipitation of approximately 2000 mm and an average temperature of 25 degrees C. The dry season occurs between the months of June and September.

site map

Figure 2. Site location map in the eastern side of Acre, Brazil including Bonal (A), Catuaba (B), Humaita (C,) and Transacreana (D). All sites were located within a distance of 67 km.

 

Surveys

Surveys were conducted in burned and unburned plots at four sites in the eastern side of Acre, Brazil including Bonal (A), Catuaba (B), Humaita (C) and Transacreana (D). All sites were located within a distance of 67 km. At the Bonal site, the transects of 2017 were in the same places of the transects from previous inventories conducted in 2014 (see related datasets), but for this study the size (larger) and the number (smaller) of the plots were different from those of 2014.

To identify burned forest areas in 2005 and 2010, Landsat time series data (Path/row: 1/67 and 2/67) were used to create annual land cover data using the method developed by Souza et al. (2013) that combines spectral mixture analysis and binary decision classification (Numata et al., 2017).

  • In area A, a sustainable use area, there were nine 500-m transects (T01-T09) with three plots of 50-m x 50-m size. Sampling plots were established 500 m, 300 m and 500 m from forest edge. Another transect with three 50-m x 100-m size plots were established in the same area.
  • In area B, there were eight plots of 50-km x 50-m split into two transects (four plots in each transect) within a preserved forest area by Federal University of Acre.
  • There were six 50-m x 100-m plots in area C; four plots were located within a preserved forest area by Federal University of Acre and the other two plots were located on private property in a fragmented forest area.

Sampling

All stems with DBH ≥ 10 cm were measured within the sample plots. Within each plot, 25-m x 25-m and 5-m x 5-m subplots were established (in Area B these plots were 10-m x 10-m) to sample stems with DBH < 10 cm and lianas, respectively. In total, 53 plots were sampled over unburned forests (28 plots) and burned forests (25 plots). Of these burned forest plots, 13 plots in the forest burned in 2005, nine plots in the forest burned in 2010 and three plots burned in both 2005 and 2010 (Numata et al., 2017).

Catuaba unburned area

Figure 3. Humaita, Area C unburned.

Humaita unburned site

Figure 4. Transacreana, Area D unburned.

 

Data Access

These data are available through the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Distributed Active Archive Center (DAAC).

Forest Inventories and DBH at Burned and Unburned Forest Sites, Acre, Brazil, 2017

Contact for Data Center Access Information:

References

Numata, I., Silva, S.S., Cochrane, M.A., d’Oliveira, M.V.C., 2017. “Fire and edge effects in a fragmented tropical forest landscape in the southwestern Amazon Article reference”. Forest Ecology and Management, 401, 135-146. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2017.07.010

Souza, C.M., Siqueira, J.V., Sales, M.H., Fonseca, A.V., Ribeiro, J.G., Numata, I., Cochrane, M.A., Barber, C.P., Roberts, D.A., Barlow, J., 2013. Ten-year landsat classification of deforestation and forest degradation in the Brazilian Amazon. Rem. Sens. 5 (11), 5493–5513. https://doi/10.3390/rs5115493