Fig. 4: Observed seasonal changes in upper canopy PAI (Plant Area Index, m2 m−2) versus understory PAI.
From: Forest fragmentation impacts the seasonality of Amazonian evergreen canopies
LiDAR-based PAI data measured between April and October 2019 in Central Amazonian forests were classified as a forest edges, situated within 40 m from the forest fragment margins, and as b forest interior, situated at least 40 m from the fragment margins. Black dots represent the mean value of each Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) survey based on 3480 understory and 3480 upper canopy PAI values in the forest interior and 1653 understory and 1653 upper canopy PAI values in the forest edges. Model’s R2 and P-value were calculated from simple linear regression (Understory PAI = β0 + β1 Upper canopy PAI). The red line in panel b represents predicted values by the model, with the shaded grey area corresponding to the two-sided 95% confidence intervals. The highlighted point in red in panel (a) denotes the first TLS measurement made in April 2019. We excluded this point to further investigate the covariance between strata but found no significant relationship (Supplementary Fig. 8).
