Mapping Aboveground Biomass of Four Typical Vegetation Types in the Poyang Lake Wetlands Based on Random Forest Modelling and Landsat Images

Rongrong Wan; Peng Wang; Xiaolong Wang; Xin Yao; Xue Dai

doi:10.3389/fpls.2019.01281

Mapping Aboveground Biomass of Four Typical Vegetation Types in the Poyang Lake Wetlands Based on Random Forest Modelling and Landsat Images

Front Plant Sci. 2019 Oct 16:10:1281. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2019.01281. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Rongrong Wan^{1

2}, Peng Wang^{1

2}, Xiaolong Wang^{1

2}, Xin Yao³, Xue Dai^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Watershed Geographic Sciences, Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, China.
² College of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
³ School of Geographic Sciences, Nanjing University of Information Sciences and Technology, Nanjing, China.

Abstract

Wetland biomass is an important indicator of wetland ecosystem health. In this study, four dominant vegetation communities (Carex cinerascens, Phalaris arundinacea, Artemisia selengensis, and Miscanthus sacchariflorus) in the Poyang Lake wetland from 2010 to 2016 were classified from Landsat images using spectral information divergence (SID). We combined aboveground biomass (AGB) field measurements and remote sensing data to establish a suitable model for estimating wetland AGB in Poyang Lake, which is on the Ramsar Convention's list of Wetlands of International Importance. The results showed that (1) overall, the classification accuracy for vegetation pixels across 5 years ranged from 59.1% to 73.7% and (2) the inter-annual and spatial variations in the AGB of the four vegetation types were clear. C. cinerascens had an average AGB density value of 1.28 kg m^-2 in Poyang Lake from 2010 to 2016; M. sacchariflorus had the highest AGB density with an average value of 1.39 kg m^-2; A. selengensis had almost the same level at 1.26 kg m^-2; and P. arundinacea had the lowest AGB density at 0.64 kg m^-2. This study provides useful experience for estimating carbon sequestration of vegetation in freshwater wetlands.

Keywords: Landsat image; Poyang Lake; Ramsar wetland; aboveground biomass; random forest; wetland vegetation.