Repeat airborne laser scanning to assess canopy height changes in tropical montane forests

Abstract. Tropical montane forests are vital ecosystems globally, preserving biodiversity, carbon stocks, and capturing moisture. We employed two airborne laser scanning (ALS) data sets to study changes in montane forest canopy heights in the Taita Hills, Kenya between 2014/2015 and 2022. We studied two forests, Ngangao (129 ha) and Yale (57 ha), which encompassed both indigenous montane forest and exotic plantations. First, forest types were mapped using field observations and aerial imagery, and then, canopy height changes were analysed using canopy height models at spatial resolution (i.e. the cell size) ranging from 1 m to 20 m. The results revealed overall increase in canopy height in the studied forests, with considerable spatial variation between the forest segments and main tree species. Planted exotic tree species, particularly eucalyptus but also pine and cypress, exhibited faster growth rates than native tree species. Point density differences between the ALS data sets can cause bias to estimation of canopy height changes. However, we observed that reducing the cell size of the canopy height models from 1 m to 10 m and 20 m, decreased the positive trend between point density difference and overestimation of canopy height change due to higher point density of more recent ALS data set. These findings contribute to our understanding on spatial complexity of montane forest ecosystems dynamics and help informing forest monitoring and development of management strategies for fragmented forests in montane regions.