Mapping Understory Vegetation Density in Mediterranean Forests: Insights from Airborne and Terrestrial Laser Scanning Integration.

ABSTRACT: The understory is an essential ecological and structural component of forest ecosystems. The lack of efficient, accurate, and objective methods for evaluating and quantifying the spatial spread of understory characteristics over large areas is a challenge for forest planning and management, with specific regard to biodiversity and habitat governance. In this study, we used terrestrial and airborne laser scanning (TLS and ALS) data to characterize understory in a European beech and black pine forest in Italy. First, we linked understory structural features derived from traditional field measurements with TLS metrics, then, we related such metrics to the ones derived from ALS. Results indicate that (i) the upper understory density (5-10 m above ground) is significantly associated with two AL

SUBMITTER: Ferrara C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9824637 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature