What are we trying to do?Map the distribution of very large crowns in protected areas.
Why?Large crowns may be an indicator of low disturbance and a surrogate for high levels of biodiversity.
- No such database of large trees exists
- Understanding patterns of large tree distribution may help us to prioritize inventory and conservation in an environment which is undergoing rapid change
- The distribution of large crowns may also tell us more about current and historic disturbance regimes across the Amazon
How can you help?Spend a few hours looking closely at any protected area covered by high resolution imagery in Google Earth and use the built-in tools to mark the large crowns for that area.
- Mark only those crowns that fall completely outside the 40m circle (i.e. are larger than the circle) .
- Do a tile at a time and mark tiles done as you go along.
- Do only tiles that are completely covered by high resolution imagery.
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