Mapping vegetation structure and carbon dynamics across the Canadian forest-tundra ecotone using multi-scale remote sensing
department or school: Forestry, Faculty of
data provider: DSpace
degree campus: UBCV
creator: Travers-Smith, Hana
issued: 2025-11-07T21:20:10Z
issued: 2025
related degree: Doctor of Philosophy - PhD
degree grantor: University of British Columbia
description: Climate change is impacting the stability and livelihoods of northern communities across Canada. Warming is accelerated at high-latitudes which has cascading effects on permafrost, hydrology, vegetation and carbon storage. The transitional area between the boreal and tundra biomes, known as the âforest-tundra ecotoneâ, is a large, dynamic region of climate-sensitive vegetation, including forests, tall-shrubs and tundra plant communities. Warming temperatures are expected to release reproductive limitations on trees facilitating northward advance of the boreal biome. However, there is significant variation in measurements of treeline advance across different locations, and the timing of advance relative to recent climatic changes are unclear. The primary objective of my dissertation is to use remote sensing datasets to investigate change in vegetation structure and its implications for carbon storage across the Canadian forest-tundra ecotone. To accomplish this, I used spaceborne light detection and ranging (Lidar) measurements and multi-spectral satellite imagery to model vegetation structure across 180 million hectares of northern Canada. These models were used to evaluate whether change in vegetation structure over the past 40-years is consistent with northward advance of the boreal biome. I found that forested area expanded northward by approximately 1 million hectares across Canada, but large parts of the limit were stable over time. Mean annual temperature and total precipitation also increased along the forest limit, indicating that the position of the forest-tundra boundary is out of equilibrium with recent climate warming. A central theme of this dissertation is assessing change across spatial and temporal scales. To this end, I also used high-resolution drone imagery to link fine-scale vegetation structure with measurements of soil organic carbon across northern tree and shrublines. At the regional scale, I paired historic air photos with contemporary satel…
aggregated CHO: https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/92875
note: Mapping vegetation structure and carbon dynamics across the Canadian forest-tundra ecotone using multi-scale remote sensing by Hana Travers-Smith BSc, University of Victoria, 2019 MSc, University of Victoria, 2021 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Forestry) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) November 2025 © Hana Travers-Smith, 2025 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, the dissertation entitled: Mapping forest structure and carbon dynamics across the Canadian forest-tundra ecotone using multi-scale remote sensing submitted by Hana Travers-Smith in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Forestry Examining Committee: Nicholas C. Coops, Professor, Forest Resources Management, The University of British Columbia Supervisor Michael Wulder, Research Scientist, Canadian Forest Services Supervisory Committee Member Trevor C. Lantz, Professor, School of Environmental Studies, The University of Victoria Supervisory Committee Member Danielle Ignace, Associate Professor, Department of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota Supervisory Committee Member Greg Henry, Professor Emeritus, Department of Geography, University of British Columbia University Examiner Jason Pither, Associate Professor, Department of Biology, University of British Columbia-Okanagan University Examiner iii Abstract Climate change is impacting the stability and livelihoods of northern communities across Canada. Warming is accelerated at high-latitudes which has cascading effects on permafrost, hydrology, vegetation and carbon storage. The transitional area between the boreal and tundra biomes, known as the âforest-tundra ecotoneâ, is a large, dynamic region of climate-sensitive vegetation, including forests, tall-shrubs and tundra pla…
has type: Thesis/Dissertation
date issued: 2026-05
is shown at: 10.14288/1.0450706
language: eng
degree discipline: Forestry
provider: Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
publisher: University of British Columbia
rights: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
rights URI: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
scholar level: Graduate
contributor: Coops, Nicholas C.
type: Text
identifier URI: http://hdl.handle.net/2429/92875