Articles | Volume 22, issue 21
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-6393-2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-22-6393-2025
Research article
 | 
06 Nov 2025
Research article |  | 06 Nov 2025

Very-high resolution aerial imagery and deep learning uncover the fine-scale patterns of elevational treelines

Erik Carrieri, Donato Morresi, Fabio Meloni, Nicolò Anselmetto, Emanuele Lingua, Raffaella Marzano, Carlo Urbinati, Alessandro Vitali, and Matteo Garbarino

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Cited articles

Ball, J. G. C., Hickman, S. H. M., Jackson, T. D., Koay, X. J., Hirst, J., Jay, W., Archer, M., Aubry-Kientz, M., Vincent, G., and Coomes, D. A.: Accurate delineation of individual tree crowns in tropical forests from aerial RGB imagery using Mask R-CNN, Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation, 9, 641–655, https://doi.org/10.1002/rse2.332, 2023. 
Barros, C., Guéguen, M., Douzet, R., Carboni, M., Boulangeat, I., Zimmermann, N. E., Münkemüller, T., and Thuiller, W.: Extreme climate events counteract the effects of climate and land-use changes in Alpine tree lines, Journal of Applied Ecology, 54, 39–50, https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2664.12742, 2017. 
Bätzing, W., Perlik, M., and Dekleva, M.: Urbanization and Depopulation in the Alps, Mountain Research and Development, 16, 335–350, https://doi.org/10.2307/3673985, 1996. 
Beloiu, M., Heinzmann, L., Rehush, N., Gessler, A., and Griess, V. C.: Individual Tree-Crown Detection and Species Identification in Heterogeneous Forests Using Aerial RGB Imagery and Deep Learning, Remote Sensing, 15, 1463, https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15051463, 2023. 
Bennett, L., Yu, Z., Wasowski, R., Selland, S., Otway, S., and Boisvert, J.: Individual tree detection and classification from RGB satellite imagery with applications to wildfire fuel mapping and exposure assessments, International Journal of Wildland Fire, 33, https://doi.org/10.1071/WF24008, 2024. 
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Short summary
Alpine treelines reflect the impacts of climate and land use changes on ecosystems. Using low-cost drones and deep learning, we developed a method to map treelines at fine scales across diverse environments. Our results reveal accurate detection and delineation of trees maps over 90 ha of treeline ecotones. This efficient, adaptable approach enables enhanced ecological analyses of treeline processes, aiding global efforts to assess treeline dynamics and their responses to global change.
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