Leaf area index measurements in a tropical moist forest: A case study from Costa Rica

The role of tropical forests in sustainable development mechanisms and payments for environmental services is becoming increasingly important. Therefore, there is a greater need for accurate and detailed information about their biophysical characteristics (e.g., Leaf area index–LAI) along different stages of ecological succession. Remote sensing offers the possibility of providing relatively accurate estimations of such biophysical characteristics at a reasonable cost for most regional projects. The objectives of this study are to (1) document the variability of LAI in different stages of secondary growth in a tropical moist forest, (2) estimate LAI from spectral vegetation indices (SVIs), and (3) link LAI to the estimation of other canopy physiognomic characteristics. We found that segregation of LAI measurements by successional stage (early, intermediate, late) contributed to a better definition of the relationship between LAI and the SVIs. In addition, we conclude that the propagation of errors of precision through the SVI formulas must be taken into consideration along with intra-site and radiometric variability when uncertainty terms are calculated. From a linear regression analysis, we found that there is only a minimal difference between the nonparametric Theil–Sen and classical least-squares regressions. We also found that not only does the Lorentzian cumulative transition function describe the relationship between LAI and the SVIs, it also provides an estimate of the range of LAI values to which each index is sensitive.