Abstract
Planted forests are critical to climate change mitigation and constitute a major supplier of timber/non-timber products and other ecosystem services. Globally, approximately 36% of planted forest area is located in East Asia. However, reliable records of the geographic distribution and tree species composition of these planted forests remain very limited. Here, based on extensive in situ and remote sensing data, as well as an ensemble modeling approach, we present the first spatial database of planted forests for East Asia, which consists of maps of the geographic distribution of planted forests and associated dominant tree genera. Of the predicted planted forest areas in East Asia (948,863 km2), China contributed 87%, most of which is located in the lowland tropical/subtropical regions, and Sichuan Basin. With 95% accuracy and an F1 score of 0.77, our spatially-continuous maps of planted forests enable accurate quantification of the role of planted forests in climate change mitigation. Our findings inform effective decision-making in forest conservation, management, and global restoration projects.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 480 |
| Journal | Scientific data |
| Volume | 10 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 2023 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This study is supported, in parts, by the World Resources Institute (WRI) project “Mapping planted forests in China,” and by the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Purdue University. We thank the Global Forest Biodiversity Initiative (GFBI) and Science-I (Project#EA-2023-001) for facilitating data sharing and international research collaboration. We also thank the Institute for a Sustainable Future (ISF) at Purdue University for facilitating Purdue-wide research collaboration. A.O.A. benefited from Takenaka Scholarship Foundation. X.T. benefited from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32271856). M.H. was supported by the CGIAR MITIGATE+ project.
Funding Information:
This study is supported, in parts, by the World Resources Institute (WRI) project “Mapping planted forests in China,” and by the Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, Purdue University. We thank the Global Forest Biodiversity Initiative (GFBI) and Science-I (Project#EA-2023-001) for facilitating data sharing and international research collaboration. We also thank the Institute for a Sustainable Future (ISF) at Purdue University for facilitating Purdue-wide research collaboration. A.O.A. benefited from Takenaka Scholarship Foundation. X.T. benefited from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (32271856). M.H. was supported by the CGIAR MITIGATE+ project.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s).
