Delineating the mountain cloud forest of Taiwan by means of topographic cloud immersion with moderate resolution satellite data and ground based observations

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Mountain cloud forests (MCF), which directly depend on frequent cloud immersion, are very important habitats with regard to biodiversity and ecosystem services as e.g. water supply. At the same time, they are especially threatened by Global Change. This also holds for Taiwan where to date, almost no information on the spatial distribution of MCF is available. This (also global) lack of information is mainly due to missing spatio-temporal data on mountain cloud immersion. Based on the recommendations of the UNEP cloud forest agenda, the current project aims on developing a methodology to delineate cloud immersion and cloud forest of Taiwan in high spatial resolution. This will be conducted by combining satellite data exploitation based on different sensors (German counterpart) with on-site observations of cloud geometrical, optical and microphysical properties as well as transect surveys (Taiwanese counterpart). The result will be maps of the potential and current extension of MCF in Taiwan.