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The global canopy atlas: analysis-ready maps of 3D structure for the world’s woody ecosystems

Woody canopies regulate exchanges of energy, water and carbon, and their three-dimensional (3D) structure supports much of terrestrial biodiversity. Remote sensing technologies such as airborne laser scanning (ALS) now enable the 3D mapping of entire landscapes. However, we lack the large, harmonize...

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Main Authors: Fischer, Fabian Jörg (Author) , Morgan, Becky (Author) , Jackson, Toby (Author) , Chave, Jérôme (Author) , Coomes, David A. (Author) , Cushman, K. C. (Author) , Dalagnol, Ricardo (Author) , Dalponte, Michele (Author) , Duncanson, Laura (Author) , Saatchi, Sassan (Author) , Seidl, Rupert (Author) , Stereńczak, Krzysztof (Author) , Laurin, Gaia Vaglio (Author) , Adu-Bredu, Stephen (Author) , Aguirre-Gutiérrez, Jesús (Author) , Antonielli, Benedetta (Author) , Armston, John David (Author) , Assis, Mauro LR de (Author) , Barbier, Nicolas (Author) , Burt, Andrew (Author) , César, Ricardo Gomes (Author) , Cervenka, Jaroslav (Author) , Coops, Nicholas (Author) , Cullen, Laury (Author) , Dalling, James W. (Author) , Davies, Andrew (Author) , Demol, Miro (Author) , Ebenbeck, Jakob (Author) , Fassnacht, Fabian (Author) , Fatoyinbo, Lola (Author) , García, Mariano (Author) , Gasparri, N. Ignacio (Author) , Gobakken, Terje (Author) , Goodbody, Tristan R. H. (Author) , Görgens, Eric Bastos (Author) , Gorum, Tolga (Author) , Gosper, Carl (Author) , Guan, Hongcan (Author) , Heiskanen, Janne (Author) , Heurich, Marco (Author) , Hobi, Martina L. (Author) , Höfle, Bernhard (Author) , Hooijer, Al (Author) , Huth, Andreas (Author) , Kedrov, Alexander (Author) , Kellner, James R. (Author) , Koenig, Simon (Author) , Král, Kamil (Author) , Krassovski, Misha (Author) , Kuechly, Helga (Author) , Krůček, Martin (Author) , Htoo, Kyaw Kyaw (Author) , Labrière, Nicolas (Author) , Lai, Daphne (Author) , Larson, Johannes (Author) , Laudon, Hjalmar (Author) , Lemke, Dawn (Author) , Lenoir, Jonathan (Author) , Malhi, Yadvinder (Author) , Malik, Owais Ahmed (Author) , Martin, Maxence (Author) , McNicol, Iain M. (Author) , Milenković, Milutin (Author) , Minor, David (Author) , Mitchard, Ed (Author) , Moudrý, Vítězslav (Author) , Muller-Landau, Helene C. (Author) , Næsset, Erik (Author) , Nathalang, Anuttara (Author) , Ometto, Jean Pierre (Author) , Onishi, Masanori (Author) , Onoda, Yusuke (Author) , Pellikka, Petri K. E. (Author) , Persson, Henrik (Author) , Ferreira, Matheus Pinheiro (Author) , Ploton, Pierre (Author) , Prober, Suzanne M. (Author) , Rahman, Farhadur (Author) , Rana, Parvez (Author) , Réjou-Méchain, Maxime (Author) , Schäfer, Jannika (Author) , Senf, Cornelius (Author) , Shapiro, Aurélie (Author) , Schepaschenko, Dmitry (Author) , Shen, Guochun (Author) , Silman, Miles (Author) , Silva, Thiago (Author) , Singh, Jenia (Author) , Slik, Ferry (Author) , Stillhard, Jonas (Author) , Subash, Anto (Author) , Takeshige, Ryuichi (Author) , Tao, Shengli (Author) , Tenorio, Evan (Author) , Tokola, Timo (Author) , Tompalski, Piotr (Author) , Tripathi, Nithin (Author) , Valbuena, Ruben (Author) , Valentini, Riccardo (Author) , Vernimmen, Ronald (Author) , Vincent, Greg (Author) , Wallerman, Jörgen (Author) , Jaafar, Wan Shafrina Wan Mohd (Author) , Wang, Yongcai (Author) , Weiser, Hannah (Author) , White, Joanne E. (Author) , Winiwarter, Lukas (Author) , Wulder, Michael (Author) , Yuan, Zuoqiang (Author) , Zdunic, Katherine (Author) , Zeng, Yelu (Author) , Zhang, Houxi (Author) , Zhang, Jian (Author) , Zhang, Zhiming (Author) , Jucker, Tommaso (Author)
Format: Article (Journal) Chapter/Article
Language:English
Published: September 5, 2025
In: bioRxiv beta
Year: 2025, Pages: 1-53
DOI:10.1101/2025.08.31.673375
Online Access:Verlag, kostenfrei, Volltext: https://doi.org/10.1101/2025.08.31.673375
Verlag, kostenfrei, Volltext: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.08.31.673375v2
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Author Notes:Fabian Jörg Fischer, Becky Morgan, Toby Jackson, Jérôme Chave, David Coomes, K. C. Cushman, Ricardo Dalagnol, Michele Dalponte, Laura Duncanson, Sassan Saatchi, Rupert Seidl, Krzysztof Stereńczak, Gaia Vaglio Laurin, Stephen Adu-Bredu, Jesús Aguirre-Gutiérrez, Benedetta Antonielli, John David Armston, Mauro LR de Assis, Nicolas Barbier, Andrew Burt, Ricardo Gomes César, Jaroslav Cervenka, Nicholas Coops, Laury Cullen, James W. Dalling, Andrew Davies, Miro Demol, Jakob Ebenbeck, Fabian Fassnacht, Lola Fatoyinbo, Mariano García, N. Ignacio Gasparri, Terje Gobakken, Tristan R. H. Goodbody, Eric Bastos Görgens, Tolga Gorum, Carl Gosper, Hongcan Guan, Janne Heiskanen, Marco Heurich, Martina Hobi, Bernhard Höfle, Al Hooijer, Andreas Huth, Alexander Kedrov, James R. Kellner, Simon Koenig, Kamil Král, Misha Krassovski, Helga Kuechly, Martin Krůček, Kyaw Kyaw Htoo, Nicolas Labrière, Daphne Lai, Johannes Larson, Hjalmar Laudon, Dawn Lemke, Jonathan Lenoir, Yadvinder Malhi, Owais Ahmed Malik, Maxence Martin, Iain McNicol, Milutin Milenkovic, David Minor, Ed Mitchard, Vítězslav Moudrý, Helene C. Muller-Landau, Erik Næsset, Anuttara Nathalang, Jean Pierre Ometto, Masanori Onishi, Yusuke Onoda, Petri Pellikka, Henrik Persson, Matheus Pinheiro Ferreira, Pierre Ploton, Suzanne M. Prober, Farhadur Rahman, Parvez Rana, Maxime Réjou-Méchain, Jannika Schäfer, Cornelius Senf, Aurélie Shapiro, Dmitry Schepaschenko, Guochun Shen, Miles Silman, Thiago Silva, Jenia Singh, Ferry Slik, Jonas Stillhard, Anto Subash, Ryuichi Takeshige, Shengli Tao, Evan Tenorio, Timo Tokola, Piotr Tompalski, Nithin Tripathi, Ruben Valbuena, Riccardo Valentini, Ronald Vernimmen, Greg Vincent, Jörgen Wallerman, Wan Shafrina Wan Mohd Jaafar, Yongcai Wang, Hannah Weiser, Joanne White, Lukas Winiwarter, Michael Wulder, Zuoqiang Yuan, Katherine Zdunic, Yelu Zeng, Houxi Zhang, Jian Zhang, Zhiming Zhang, Tommaso Jucker
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Summary:Woody canopies regulate exchanges of energy, water and carbon, and their three-dimensional (3D) structure supports much of terrestrial biodiversity. Remote sensing technologies such as airborne laser scanning (ALS) now enable the 3D mapping of entire landscapes. However, we lack the large, harmonized and geographically representative ALS collections needed to build a global picture of woody ecosystem structure. To address this challenge, we developed the Global Canopy Atlas (GCA): 3,458 ALS acquisitions transformed into standardized and analysis-ready maps of canopy height and elevation at 1 m2 resolution. The GCA covers 56,554 km2 across all major biomes. 19% of this area has been scanned multiple times, and 87% of all GCA products are openly available, covering 95% of the total area. To showcase its wide range of applications, we applied the GCA in three case studies. First, we validated three global satellite-derived canopy height maps, finding poor performance at native resolution (1-30 m, R2 < 0.38) and moderate performance at 250 m resolution (R2 < 0.65). Second, analyzing global patterns in canopy gap size frequency we discovered an unexpectedly large variation of power law exponents from branch to stand level (α = 1.52 to 2.38), pointing to a fundamental scale-dependence of forest structure. Third, we developed a framework to standardize forest turnover quantification from multi-source, multi-temporal ALS. In a temperate forest in North America it revealed that 21% of canopy gaps closed within 12 years of opening and would thus be missed by infrequent monitoring. As demonstrated by these case studies, the GCA provides a novel data source for ecologists, foresters, remote sensing scientists and the ecosystem modelling community that substantially advances our ability to understand the structure and dynamics of woody ecosystems at global scales.
Item Description:Gesehen am 17.09.2025
Physical Description:Online Resource
DOI:10.1101/2025.08.31.673375

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