Prof. Dr. Doreen Boyd

Forest inventory studies in the Amazon indicate a large terrestrial carbon sink. However, field plots may fail to represent forest mortality processes at landscape-scales of tropical forests. Here we characterize the frequency distribution of disturbance events in natural forests from 0.01 ha to 2,651 ha size throughout Amazonia using a novel combination of forest inventory, airborne lidar and satellite remote sensing data. We find that small-scale mortality events are responsible for aboveground biomass losses of ~1.28 Pg C y⁻¹ over the entire Amazon region. We also find that intermediate-scale disturbances account for losses of ~0.01 Pg C y⁻¹, and that the largest-scale disturbances as a result of blow-downs only account for losses of ~0.003 Pg C y⁻¹. Simulation of growth and mortality indicates that even when all carbon losses from intermediate and large-scale disturbances are considered, these are outweighed by the net biomass accumulation by tree growth, supporting the inference of an Amazon carbon sink.

1 July 2001 in Global Ecology and Biogeography

Journal Article

Mapping the biomass of Bornean tropical rain forest from remotely sensed data

Giles Foody

Mark Cutler

Julia McMorrow

Dieter Pelz

Hamzah Tangki

Ian Douglas

1 March 2005 in Progress in Physical Geography: Earth and Environment

Journal Article

Satellite remote sensing of forest resources: three decades of research development

Doreen Boyd

Mark Danson

Three decades have passed since the launch of the first international satellite sensor programme designed for monitoring Earth’s resources. Over this period, forest resources have come under increasing pressure, thus their management and use should be underpinned by information on their properties at a number of levels. This paper provides a comprehensive review of how satellite remote sensing has been used in forest resource assessment since the launch of the first Earth resources satellite sensor (ERTS) in 1972. The use of remote sensing in forest resource assessment provides three levels of information; namely (1) the spatial extent of forest cover, which can be used to assess the spatial dynamics of forest cover; (2) forest type and (3) biophysical and biochemical properties of forests. The assessment of forest information over time enables the comprehensive monitoring of forest resources. This paper provides a comprehensive review of how satellite remote sensing has been used to date and, building on these experiences, the future potential of satellite remote sensing of forest resources is highlighted.

About Me

Prof. Doreen S. Boyd currently is a Professor of Earth Observation and Associate Director of the Rights Lab, leading the Lab's Measurement and Geographies Programme. She received a BSc (Hons) degree in Geography from the University of Wales, Swansea in 1992, and a PhD (University of Southampton) in 1996. She gained her PGCert in Teaching and Learning in HE in 2002. She has held Lectureships at Manchester, Kingston, and Bournemouth Universities, UK, and between 2004 and 2006, she held the position of Senior Research Leader in Research and Innovation at Ordnance Survey, GB. In 2007 she joined the University of Nottingham as an Associate Professor and was subsequently (in 2013) promoted to Reader and then Professor (in 2019). She won the Group on Earth Observations (GEO) ‘Earth Observations for the SDGs’ (EO4SD) award. She serves on the UK Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) Airborne Research and Survey Facility (ARSF) Steering Committee, the EUFAR Scientific and Transnational Access Steering Panel. Her main research interest is in using cutting-edge geospatial data science on standard and novel data streams. The principal data stream is captured by remote sensing systems, including terrestrial-based, unoccupied and occupied aerial systems, and satellites carrying both passive and active sensors.

Prof. Dr. Doreen Boyd

Prof. Dr. Doreen Boyd

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About Me