Biogeosciences, 12, 6637–6653, 2015 www.biogeosciences.net/12/6637/2015/ doi:10.5194/bg-12-6637-2015 © Author(s) 2015. CC Attribution 3.0 License. Integrated radar and lidar analysis reveals extensive loss of remaining intact forest on Sumatra 2007–2010 M. B. Collins1,2,3 and E. T. A. Mitchard1 1School of GeoSciences, University of Edinburgh, Crew Building, The King’s Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JN, UK 2Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, Regents Park, London, NW1 4RY, UK 3Department of Geography and the Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science, Houghton Street, London, WC2A 2AE, UK Correspondence to: M. B. Collins (
[email protected]) Received: 17 March 2015 – Published in Biogeosciences Discuss.: 11 June 2015 Revised: 30 October 2015 – Accepted: 4 November 2015 – Published: 23 November 2015 Abstract. Forests with high above-ground biomass (AGB), 1 Introduction including those growing on peat swamps, have historically not been thought suitable for biomass mapping and change detection using synthetic aperture radar (SAR). However, by Tropical forests provide multiple ecosystem services such as integrating L-band (λ = 0.23 m) SAR from the ALOS and li- climate regulation and water filtration (Naidoo et al., 2008). dar from the ICESat Earth-Observing satellites with 56 field However, markets fail to value forests and their services fully, plots, we were able to create a forest biomass and change with multiple direct and indirect processes driving exten- map for a 10.7 Mha section of eastern Sumatra that still con- sive deforestation (complete removal of tree cover) and for- tains high AGB peat swamp forest.