A Stochastic Dynamic Methodology (StDM) to simulate the effects of fire on vegetation and bird communities in Pinus pinaster stands

Potential of an ultraviolet, medium-footprint lidar prototype for retrieving forest structure

“…Tree or stand heights were successfully retrieved and the total volume and spatial organization of vegetation material were determined (e.g., Lefsky et al, 1999;Chen et al, 2007;Popescu, 2007). Due to their accuracy, forest parameters derived from lidar data can be used for forest inventory and as model inputs for ecological applications (e.g., Waser et al, 2008;Silva-Santos et al, 2010). However, because lidar system parameters (i.e., laser beam divergence, laser wavelength, measurement repetition rate, waveform digitization frequency) along with the flight parameters (altitude, speed) have an impact on the recorded backscattered signals and the way forests are sampled (laser footprint size, distance between footprints) (Naesset, 2009), they must be chosen in relation to the scale of observation, the accuracy needed and the amount of data to be managed.…”