TY - JOUR
T1 - Spatial quantification of leafless canopy structure in a boreal birch forest
AU - Reid, Tim
AU - Spencer, Michael
AU - Huntley, Brian
AU - Hancock, Steven
AU - Essery, Richard
AU - Carle, Joel
AU - Holden, Robert
AU - Baxter, Robert
AU - Rutter, Nick
PY - 2014/5/15
Y1 - 2014/5/15
N2 - Leafless deciduous canopies in boreal regions affect the energy available for snowmelt and reduce over-all surface albedo during winter, thereby exerting a strong influence on weather and climate. In this work, ground-based measurements of leafless canopy structure, including hemispherical photography, terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) and manual tree surveys were collected at 38 sites in an area of mountain birch forest in northern Sweden in March 2011 and 2012. Photo-derived sky view fraction was strongly inversely correlated (r <−0.9) to the total tree basal area in a 5 m radius around the photo site. To expand findings to wider areas, maps of canopy height for a 5 km × 3 km area were obtained from airborne lidar (ALS) data collected during summer 2005. Canopy heights derived from TLS were used to validate the ALS estimates, and simple models were developed to establish relationships between hemispherical sky view and ALS canopy height (RMSE <5%). The models and ALS data provide useful methods for estimating canopy radiative transfer and biomass over wide areas of birch forest, despite the relatively low ALS resolution (∼1 return m−2).
AB - Leafless deciduous canopies in boreal regions affect the energy available for snowmelt and reduce over-all surface albedo during winter, thereby exerting a strong influence on weather and climate. In this work, ground-based measurements of leafless canopy structure, including hemispherical photography, terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) and manual tree surveys were collected at 38 sites in an area of mountain birch forest in northern Sweden in March 2011 and 2012. Photo-derived sky view fraction was strongly inversely correlated (r <−0.9) to the total tree basal area in a 5 m radius around the photo site. To expand findings to wider areas, maps of canopy height for a 5 km × 3 km area were obtained from airborne lidar (ALS) data collected during summer 2005. Canopy heights derived from TLS were used to validate the ALS estimates, and simple models were developed to establish relationships between hemispherical sky view and ALS canopy height (RMSE <5%). The models and ALS data provide useful methods for estimating canopy radiative transfer and biomass over wide areas of birch forest, despite the relatively low ALS resolution (∼1 return m−2).
KW - Boreal forests
KW - snow
KW - canopy radiative transfer
KW - airborne lidar
KW - terrestrial laser scanning
KW - hemispherical photography
U2 - 10.1016/j.agrformet.2013.12.005
DO - 10.1016/j.agrformet.2013.12.005
M3 - Article
SN - 0168-1923
SN - 1873-2240
VL - 188
SP - 1
EP - 12
JO - Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
JF - Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
ER -