Bamboo-Dominated Forests of the Southwest Amazon: Detection, Spatial Extent, Life Cycle Length and Flowering Waves
Figure 5
Full extent of southwest Amazon bamboo-dominated forests and study locations.
Bamboo extent is based on visual interpretation of two Landsat Geocover mosaics and one MODIS mosaic. Base-map is a hill-shaded Digital Elevation Model from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, with gray tones scaled from 0–300 m altitude. Line A-A’ is a topographic profile across the Fitzcarrald Arch, also evident as higher terrain in the inset map. Soils and spectral patterns of forest types were compared at a topographically defined edge of bamboo forest in the small white rectangle, enlarged in Figure 3. Life-cycle study was conducted in the large white square. White asterisks are five sites of flowering or fruiting specimens of sarmentose Guadua, where Landsat images confirmed a temporal change in forest canopy spectral patterns from mature to post-reproduction life stage. Flowering specimens from west to east are: Nelson 6026 (INPA), June 1995 (Guadua sarcocarpa); Daly et al. 9932 (NY), March 1999 (G. weberbaueri); Krukoff 5235 (NY), July 1933 (G. sarcocarpa); field observation, flowered in 1988 (G. sarcocarpa); Daly et al. 12144 (NY), October 2003 (G. sarcocarpa).