Recent advances and challenges in monitoring and modeling of disturbances in tropical moist forests

Abstract

Tropical moist forests have been severely affected by natural and anthropogenic disturbances, leading to substantial changes in global carbon cycle and climate. These effects have received great attention in scientific research and debates. Here we review recent progress on drivers and ecological impacts of tropical moist forest disturbances, and their monitoring and modeling methods. Disturbances in tropical moist forests are primarily driven by clearcutting, selective logging, fire, extreme drought, and edge effects. Compound disturbances such as fire and edge effects aggravate degradation in the edge forests. Drought can result in terrestrial carbon loss via physiological impacts. These disturbances lead to direct carbon loss, biophysical warming and microclimate change. Remote sensing observations are promising for monitoring forest disturbances and revealing mechanisms, which will be useful for implementing disturbance processes in dynamic vegetation models. Yet, constrained spatiotemporal coverages and resolutions limit the application of these data in process-based models. It is also challenging to represent physical processes derived from fine-resolution remote sensing data in coarse-resolution models. We highlight the need to continuously integrate new datasets and physical processes in forest disturbance modeling to advance understanding of disturbance patterns and impacts. Interactions and impacts of climate change and anthropogenic activities should also be considered for modeling and assessing feedbacks of tropical moist forest disturbances.