Remote sensing of upper canopy leaf area index and forest floor vegetation cover as indicators of net primary productivity in a Siberian larch forest

摘要

In this study, we demonstrated that the leaf area index (LAI) and forest floor vegetation cover (FVC) are indicators of net primary productivity (NPP) in Siberian larch forest by considering forest biometric and CO2 budget parameters. Further, we estimated the distributions of these indicators and the corresponding NPP using Landsat ETM+ imagery. This estimation was based on the spectral measurements of larch leaves and the forest floor and on radiative transfer modeling studies. The results revealed that the estimated and observed values of larch LAI and FVC were similar; however, the estimated NPP (222 ± 24 gC m~-2 yr~-1) was greater than that obtained from observations from meteorological towers and soil heterotrophic respiration values (130–180 gC m~-2 yr~-1) at the study site. We present the geographical distributions of larch LAI, FVC, and annual NPP that are associated with the components of the CO2 budget and spectral parameters, which will be used to conduct intercomparison studies in the future.