Impact of Volcanic Sulfur Emissions on the Pine Forest of La Palma, Spain. Weiser, F., Baumann, E., Jentsch, A., Medina, F. M., Lu, M., Nogales, M., & Beierkuhnlein, C. Forests, MDPI, 2022. Cited by: 8; All Open Access, Gold Open Access, Green Open Access
Impact of Volcanic Sulfur Emissions on the Pine Forest of La Palma, Spain [link]Paper  doi  abstract   bibtex   
In autumn 2021, the largest volcanic eruption on the island of La Palma in historic records took place. The Canary Islands are of volcanic origin and eruptions have always constituted part of their natural disturbance regime. Until recently, their impacts could not be directly observed and studied. Influence of the emission of phytotoxic gases on biodiversity and ecosystem dynamics was hitherto unknown. The recent eruption is still being intensely monitored. We used Sentinel-2 remote sensing data to analyze the spatial extent and intensity of the impact related to sulfuric emissions, aiming to understand the damage patterns in Canary pine forest. The emissions damaged 10% of that forest and affected 5.3% of the Natura 2000 protected areas. We concluded that this is largely due to the toxic effects of the enormous emissions of SO2 . We found a clear correlation between the change in the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and distance from the eruption. This pattern was weakly anisotropic, with stronger damage in southern directions. Counteracting effects, such as ash deposition, were largely excluded by combining NDVI change detection with tree cover density. We expect that vegetation damage will be transient. P. canariensis can resprout after forest fires, where most leaves are lost. Consequently, our assessment can serve as a reference for future ecosystem regeneration. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
@ARTICLE{Weiser2022,
	author = {Weiser, Frank and Baumann, Esther and Jentsch, Anke and Medina, Félix Manuel and Lu, Meng and Nogales, Manuel and Beierkuhnlein, Carl},
	title = {Impact of Volcanic Sulfur Emissions on the Pine Forest of La Palma, Spain},
	year = {2022},
	journal = {Forests},
	volume = {13},
	number = {2},
	doi = {10.3390/f13020299},
	url = {https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85124707032&doi=10.3390%2ff13020299&partnerID=40&md5=a68a0be5a7f572e6067dd68631093372},
	affiliations = {Department of Biogeography, University of Bayreuth, Universitätsstraße 30, Bayreuth, 95447, Germany; Biomasseinstitut, BIT, University of Applied Sciences, Weihenstephan-Triesdorf, Markgrafenstr. 16, Weidenbach, 91746, Germany; Disturbance Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics, University of Bayreuth, Universitätsstr. 30, Bayreuth, 95447, Germany; Consejería de Medio Ambiente, Cabildo Insular de La Palma, Santa Cruz de La Palma, 38700, Spain; Geoinformatics-Spatial Big Data, University of Bayreuth, Universitätsstr. 30, Bayreuth, 95447, Germany; Island Ecology and Evolution Research Group, Institute of Natural Products and Agrobiology, (IPNA-CSIC), San Cristóbal de La Laguna, 38206, Spain; Bayreuth Center for Ecology and Environmental Science BayCEER, Bayreuth, 95440, Germany; Geographical Institute Bayreuth, GIB, Bayreuth, 95440, Germany},
	abstract = {In autumn 2021, the largest volcanic eruption on the island of La Palma in historic records took place. The Canary Islands are of volcanic origin and eruptions have always constituted part of their natural disturbance regime. Until recently, their impacts could not be directly observed and studied. Influence of the emission of phytotoxic gases on biodiversity and ecosystem dynamics was hitherto unknown. The recent eruption is still being intensely monitored. We used Sentinel-2 remote sensing data to analyze the spatial extent and intensity of the impact related to sulfuric emissions, aiming to understand the damage patterns in Canary pine forest. The emissions damaged 10% of that forest and affected 5.3% of the Natura 2000 protected areas. We concluded that this is largely due to the toxic effects of the enormous emissions of SO2 . We found a clear correlation between the change in the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) and distance from the eruption. This pattern was weakly anisotropic, with stronger damage in southern directions. Counteracting effects, such as ash deposition, were largely excluded by combining NDVI change detection with tree cover density. We expect that vegetation damage will be transient. P. canariensis can resprout after forest fires, where most leaves are lost. Consequently, our assessment can serve as a reference for future ecosystem regeneration. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.},
	author_keywords = {Chlorosis; Cumbre Vieja; Natural disturbances; Natural pollution; Oceanic island; Pine forest; Pinus canariensis; Sentinel-2; Sulfur; Volcanic eruption; Volcanism},
	keywords = {Biodiversity; Conservation; Deforestation; Ecosystems; Reforestation; Remote Sensing; Canary Islands; Canary Islands; La Palma; Santa Cruz de Tenerife [(PRV) Canary Islands]; Spain; Biodiversity; Conservation; Deforestation; Ecosystems; Reforestation; Remote sensing; Sulfur; Vegetation; Chlorosis; Cumbre viejum; Natural disturbance; Natural pollution; Oceanic islands; Pine forest; Pinus canariensis; Sentinel-2; Volcanic eruptions; Volcanism; biodiversity; ecosystem dynamics; NDVI; pine; remote sensing; Sentinel; sulfur; sulfur emission; volcanic eruption; volcanism; Volcanoes},
	correspondence_address = {F. Weiser; Department of Biogeography, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Universitätsstraße 30, 95447, Germany; email: frank.weiser@uni-bayreuth.de},
	publisher = {MDPI},
	issn = {19994907},
	language = {English},
	abbrev_source_title = {Forests},
	type = {Article},
	publication_stage = {Final},
	source = {Scopus},
	note = {Cited by: 8; All Open Access, Gold Open Access, Green Open Access}
}

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