摘要：Biomass mapping using satellite imagery is a rapidly evolving field that has been greatly
facilitated in recent years by the advent of LiDAR remote sensing coupled with co-located
field measurements. The biomass map of Africa that we published in 2008 did not take
direct advantage of coincident field and LiDAR measurements, as our more recent efforts
have. The criticisms of our earlier map by Mitchard et al (2011 Environ. Res. Lett.6
049001) are duly noted and worthwhile, although they are also limited in several respects
that we describe. Most notably, they assess our map with field data sets that are only
representative of a subset of conditions across the study domain, thus they not
only inadequately characterize undisturbed tropical forest regions but also the
diverse disturbance dynamics that are captured in satellite imagery. We point out
the limitations of their assessment and focus on a way forward, moving beyond
both inadequate field sampling and remote sensing to an approach the captures
the full range of dynamics by directly coupling field and satellite measurements.
