Abstract:
Forest above-ground biomass (AGB) is recognized as an important indicator of forest productivity. Rapid and accurate estimation of forest AGB is crucial for sustainable forest management and carbon cycle research. Based on spaceborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data from the global ecosystem dynamic investigation (GEDI) and Sentinel-2 optical data,this study extracted GEDI L2B,Sentinel-2 remote sensing features,and topographic factors (elevation,aspect,and slope) in the study area. Among them,variables were determined through Pearson correlation analysis. Then,this study constructed the partial least squares regression (PLSR),gradient boosting regression tree (GBRT),and random forest (RF) models for forest AGB inversion. Consequently,this study estimated these models’ potential for forest AGB estimation and analyzed the spatial distribution differences of forest AGB. The results indicate that the estimation using multi-source data consistently outperformed that using single-source data. Among them,the RF model based on GEDI and Sentinel-2 data exhibited the best performance (
R2=0.76,root mean square error (
RMSE)=23.02 t/hm
2),followed by the GBRT model,while the PLSR model performed the worst (
R2=0.26). In terms of spatial distribution,within the elevation range of 1 200~1 800 m,forest AGB density increased with elevation. Slope variation had little effect on forest AGB density,but a pronounced decrease in AGB density was observed on steep slopes. Aspect analysis showed that semi-shaded and sunny slopes exhibited high forest AGB density,while shaded and semi-sunny slopes presented similar values. Slope-aspect interaction analysis revealed that sunny and semi-sunny slopes displayed the highest total forest AGB on gentle and moderate slopes,respectively. In contrast,forest AGB significantly decreased across all orientations on flat and steep slopes,with a more significant decline observed on shaded and semi-shaded slopes. These findings provide a scientific basis for formulating forest protection and cultivation policies at the provincial level.