Mesoscale changes in textural pattern of 'intact' Peruvian rainforests (1970s-1980s)

To assess changes in spatial heterogeneity of non-anthropogenically disturbed rainforests, we compared lacunarity of Landsat MSS imagery over the Peruvian lowlands from the 1970s and 1980s. The organizational patterns associated with lower NDVI values were found to be significantly more clumped during the 1970s whereas those associated with higher NDVI values became more clumped during the 1980s. These spatial dynamics suggest that these rainforests represent non-equilibrium systems at coarse hierarchical levels which are typically thought to be stable at decadal intervals.