PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - A.M. Cunliffe
AU  - K. Anderson
AU  - F. Boschetti
AU  - R.E. Brazier
AU  - H.A. Graham
AU  - I.H. Myers-Smith
AU  - T. Astor
AU  - M.M. Boer
AU  - L. Calvo
AU  - P.E. Clark
AU  - M.D. Cramer
AU  - M.S. Encinas-Lara
AU  - S.M. Escarzaga
AU  - J.M. Fernández-Guisuraga
AU  - A.G. Fisher
AU  - K. Gdulová
AU  - B.M. Gillespie
AU  - A. Griebel
AU  - N.P. Hanan
AU  - M.S. Hanggito
AU  - S. Haselberger
AU  - C.A. Havrilla
AU  - P. Heilman
AU  - W. Ji
AU  - J.W. Karl
AU  - M. Kirchhoff
AU  - S. Kraushaar
AU  - M.B. Lyons
AU  - I. Marzolff
AU  - M.E. Mauritz
AU  - C.D. McIntire
AU  - D. Metzen
AU  - L.A. Méndez-Barroso
AU  - S.C. Power
AU  - J. Prošek
AU  - E. Sanz-Ablanedo
AU  - K.J. Sauer
AU  - D. Schulze-Brüninghoff
AU  - P. Šímová
AU  - S. Sitch
AU  - J.L. Smit
AU  - C.M. Steele
AU  - S. Suárez-Seoane
AU  - S.A. Vargas
AU  - M.L. Villarreal
AU  - F. Visser
AU  - M. Wachendorf
AU  - H. Wirnsberger
AU  - R. Wojcikiewicz
TI  - Drone-derived canopy height predicts biomass across non-forest ecosystems globally
AID  - 10.1101/2020.07.16.206011
DP  - 2020 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2020.07.16.206011
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/07/17/2020.07.16.206011.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/07/17/2020.07.16.206011.full
AB  - Non-forest ecosystems, dominated by shrubs, grasses and herbaceous plants, provide ecosystem services including carbon sequestration and forage for grazing, yet are highly sensitive to climatic changes. Yet these ecosystems are poorly represented in remotely-sensed biomass products and are undersampled by in-situ monitoring. Current global change threats emphasise the need for new tools to capture biomass change in non-forest ecosystems at appropriate scales. Here we assess whether canopy height inferred from drone photogrammetry allows the estimation of aboveground biomass (AGB) across low-stature plant species sampled through a global site network. We found mean canopy height is strongly predictive of AGB across species, demonstrating standardised photogrammetric approaches are generalisable across growth forms and environmental settings. Biomass per-unit-of-height was similar within, but different among, plant functional types. We find drone-based photogrammetry allows for monitoring of AGB across large spatial extents and can advance understanding of understudied and vulnerable non-forested ecosystems across the globe.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.