Quantifying vegetation indices using terrestrial laser  scanning: methodological complexities and ecological   insights from a Mediterranean forest

Flynn, William Rupert Moore; Owen, Harry Jon Foord; Grieve, Stuart William David; Lines, Emily Rebecca

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-2769-2023

Articles | Volume 20, issue 13

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-2769-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-2769-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 20, issue 13

Research article

|

14 Jul 2023

Research article |

| 14 Jul 2023

Quantifying vegetation indices using terrestrial laser scanning: methodological complexities and ecological insights from a Mediterranean forest

William Rupert Moore Flynn, Harry Jon Foord Owen, Stuart William David Grieve, and Emily Rebecca Lines

Data sets

DHP images collected from Alto Tajo and Cuellar in Spain William Rupert Moore Flynn, Harry Jon Foord Owen, Stuart William David Grieve, and Emily Rebecca Lines https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7628072

Individual TLS tree clouds collected from both Alto Tajo and Cuellar in Spain Harry Jon Foord Owen, William Rupert Moore Flynn, and Emily Rebecca Lines https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6962717

Model code and software

will-flynn/tls_dhp_pai: tls_dhp_pai William Rupert Moore Flynn and Stuart William David Grieve https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8134269

Short summary

Quantifying vegetation indices is crucial for ecosystem monitoring and modelling. Terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) has potential to accurately measure vegetation indices, but multiple methods exist, with little consensus on best practice. We compare three methods and extract wood-to-plant ratio, a metric used to correct for wood in leaf indices. We show corrective metrics vary with tree structure and variation among methods, highlighting the value of TLS data and importance of rigorous testing.