DOI: 10.5061/dryad.21t1805
title: Data from: A view from above: A view from above: unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) provide a new tool for assessing liana infestation in tropical forest canopies

description: 1. Tropical forests store and sequester large quantities of carbon,
 mitigating climate change. Lianas (woody vines) are important tropical
 forest components, most conspicuous in the canopy. Lianas reduce forest
 carbon uptake and their recent increase may, therefore, limit forest
 carbon storage with global consequences for climate change. Liana
 infestation of tree crowns is traditionally assessed from the ground,
 which is labour-intensive and difficult, particularly for upper canopy
 layers. 2. We used a light-weight unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) to assess
 liana infestation of tree canopies from above. We used a commercially
 available quadcopter UAV with an integrated, standard three-waveband
 camera to collect aerial image data for 150ha of tropical forest canopy.
 By visually interpreting the images, we assessed the degree of liana
 infestation for 14.15ha of forest for which ground-based estimates were
 collected simultaneously. We compared the UAV liana infestation estimates
 with those from the ground to determine the validity, strengths and
 weaknesses of using UAVs as a new method for assessing liana infestation
 of tree canopies. 3. Estimates of liana infestation from UAV correlated
 strongly with ground-based surveys at individual tree and plot level, and
 across multiple forest types and spatial resolutions, improving liana
 infestation assessment for upper canopy layers. Importantly, UAV-based
 surveys, including the image collection, processing and visual
 interpretation, were considerably faster and more cost-efficient than
 ground-based surveys. 4. Synthesis and applications: UAV image data of
 tree canopies can be easily captured and used to assess liana infestation
 at least as accurately as traditional ground data. This novel method
 promotes reproducibility of results and quality control, and enables
 additional variables to be derived from the image data. It is more
 cost-effective, time-efficient and covers larger geographical extents than
 traditional ground surveys, enabling more comprehensive monitoring of
 changes in liana infestation over space and time. This is important for
 assessing liana impacts on the global carbon balance, and particularly
 useful for forest management where knowledge of the location and change in
 liana infestation can be used for tailored, targeted and effective
 management of tropical forests for enhanced carbon sequestration (e.g.
 REDD+ projects), timber concessions and forest restoration.14-Nov-2018
description: Data from: A view from
 above: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) provide a new tool for assessing
 liana infestation in tropical forest canopies, Waite, Catherine E., van
 der Heijden, Geertje M.F., Field, Richard, Boyd, Doreen
 S.Data from: A view from
 above: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) provide a new tool for assessing
 liana infestation in tropical forest canopies, Waite, Catherine E., van
 der Heijden, Geertje M.F., Field, Richard, Boyd, Doreen S. Provided in
 .csv format.Waite_et_al_JoAE_2018.csv