More monitoring needed for “Tsunami stage” of global deforestation

Human impact on tropical forest ecosystems has reached a “tsunami”
stage, say scientists, and will require a new generation of
sophisticated remote-sensing technology to monitor the changes.
“Selective logging is more difficult to recognize and quantify than
outright deforestation, so there have been few estimates of its
impact,” says Asner. “But we found that around 28% of humid tropical
forests are undergoing some level of timber harvesting. The overall
impacts of selective logging on biodiversity are far less dramatic
than the wholesale losses incurred by deforestation,” he adds, “but
nonetheless it can fundamentally alter forest habitat.”

The
researchers also found that at least 1.7% of humid tropical forests
are in some stage of secondary regrowth, mostly in hilly or
mountainous regions marginal for large-scale agriculture and ranching.
But Asner emphasizes that the precision of these estimates is limited
by current technologies, especially considering the difficulty of
resolving fine-scale vegetation changes. New technologies to resolve
subtle forest changes, such as the new sensors being developed by the
Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Carnegie, will be necessary as the
rainforest “tsunami” continues to sweep through tropical ecosystems in
the coming decades.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/01/090112201025.htm

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