Fig. 1: Differences between Protected Areas and Unprotected Surroundings. | Communications Earth & Environment

Fig. 1: Differences between Protected Areas and Unprotected Surroundings.

From: Spaceborne LiDAR reveals the effectiveness of European Protected Areas in conserving forest height and vertical structure

Fig. 1: Differences between Protected Areas and Unprotected Surroundings.The alternative text for this image may have been generated using AI.

Difference in Canopy Top Height between Protected Areas and Unprotected Surroundings for (a) Natura 2000 sites and (b) strictly protected sites according to the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA). Difference in coefficient of variation of canopy top height (c, d), Foliage Height Diversity (e, f) and Shannon Diversity Index (g, h). Within each hexagon grid cell (side 100 km), we computed the mean values - and the coefficient of variation - of canopy top height in Protected Areas and Unprotected Surroundings and then their difference. Grey-filled colour identifies EU countries where concurrent PAs and GEDI information is available. Note that Croatia does not appear in the WDPA because the protection classification is missing for its PAs. Dots in the hexagons indicate when differences are statistically significant (i.e. p < 0.05) using a t-test with Bonferroni correction (not performed for the coefficient of variation of canopy top height). Density plots of the differences (i–l) for Natura 2000 sites (blue filled) and strictly protected sites according to the World Database on Protected Areas (yellow filled - WDPA). The vertical solid line represents the mean value, while the vertical dot-dashed lines the standard deviation.

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