Monitoring the Seasonal Functioning of Tropical Ecosystems With Phenocams

ABSTRACT Phenology is an essential biodiversity variable, but land surface phenology is challenging in cloudy tropical regions while field observations are time‐consuming and sparse in time. Phenocams offer opportunities that have been barely explored in Africa. Here, we present the first results of a phenocam network installed in Gabon. The 2 years of images show the seasonal and bimodal functioning of forest canopy, mimicking rainfall seasonality and the unimodal functioning of savanna, associated with the long dry season and fire. This work is encouraging though the challenge is to maintain phenocams over the long‐term and automate the signal analysis.

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Publication Details

Journal
African Journal of Ecology
Published
2026-01-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1111/aje.70143
Primary Topic
Remote Sensing in Agriculture
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Monitoring the Seasonal Functioning of Tropical Ecosystems With Phenocams

Nassim Daher, Benoît Mercatoris, Katharine Abernethy, Emma R. Bush et al.
African Journal of Ecology
Remote Sensing in Agriculture
article

Monitoring the Seasonal Functioning of Tropical Ecosystems With Phenocams

Nassim Daher, Benoît Mercatoris, Katharine Abernethy, Emma R. Bush, Adeline Fayolle, Sébastien Dandrifosse, David Lehmann, Loïc Makaga, Léna Royen, Anais Gorel
article en

Abstract

ABSTRACT Phenology is an essential biodiversity variable, but land surface phenology is challenging in cloudy tropical regions while field observations are time‐consuming and sparse in time. Phenocams offer opportunities that have been barely explored in Africa. Here, we present the first results of a phenocam network installed in Gabon. The 2 years of images show the seasonal and bimodal functioning of forest canopy, mimicking rainfall seasonality and the unimodal functioning of savanna, associated with the long dry season and fire. This work is encouraging though the challenge is to maintain phenocams over the long‐term and automate the signal analysis.

African Journal of EcologyVol. 64(1)
University of Stirling (GB), Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (FR), Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (GB), Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech (BE), Libreville Hospital (GA), Omar Bongo University (GA), Ghent University (BE), Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique et Technologique (BF), Amélioration Génétique et Adaptation des Plantes méditerranéennes et tropicales (FR), National Agency for National Parks (GA), Services déconcentrés d'appui à la recherche Occitanie-Montpellier (FR)
Fonds De La Recherche Scientifique - FNRS, Universiteit Gent, Fonds pour la Formation à la Recherche dans l’Industrie et dans l’Agriculture, Bijzonder Onderzoeksfonds UGent
Life in Land
Openalex Percentile: Top 95%
Remote Sensing in Agriculture
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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