Monitoring the Seasonal Functioning of Tropical Ecosystems With Phenocams

African Journal of Ecology 2026 Open access

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Authors: Adeline Fayolle, Léna Royen, Emma R. Bush, Nassim Daher, Sébastien Dandrifosse, Anaïs Gorel, David Hermann Lehmann, Loïc Makaga, Benoît Mercatoris, Katharine A. Abernethy
DOI: 10.1111/aje.70143
Cited by: 1
References: 30

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.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Remote Sensing in Agriculture Optical Polarization and Ellipsometry Remote-Sensing Image Classification

Publication details

Journal / source
African Journal of Ecology
Publisher
Wiley
Volume
64
Issue
1
Publication date
1 January 2026
Language
EN