TLSIIG researchers to lead Royal Society international research meeting

Professor Mark Danson, Dr Mat Disney, Dr Rachel Gaulton, and Professor Crystal Schaaf, all members of the Terrestrial Laser Scanner International Interest Group (TLSIIG) have won support from the Royal Society to lead a Theo Murphy International Scientific Meeting to be held at The Society’s Chicheley Hall in the UK in February 2017. The meeting will bring together a star line-up of researchers from around the world to discuss “The terrestrial laser scanning revolution in forest ecology”. The meeting organizers are from the University of Salford, UK, University College London, UK, University of Newcastle, UK and University of Massachusetts Boston, US, and are among the sixteen invited speakers from Australia, United States, Finland, Netherlands and the UK.

Terrestrial laser scanners, or TLS for short, provide detailed three-dimensional measurements of forests, by firing millions of laser pulses up into the canopy.  The information recorded can then be used to monitor changes in forest structure and biomass with unprecedented accuracy. These measurements are set to revolutionize the way in which ecologists measure forests, and will help determine whether forests are acting as carbon sinks, absorbing excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, or carbon sources, adding to the greenhouse effect. 

SALCA range image at Alice Holt, Hampshire

 

The meeting will lead to a Special Themed issue of the Royal Society’s inter-disciplinary journal Interface Focus, with Professor Danson as lead editor. Professor Danson said: “This support from the UK’s most eminent scientific society will be a showcase Salford’s world-leading research in TLS applications in ecology. It will also provide a forum for developing this research field, along with other key players from around the world”. The meeting will take place  27-28th February 2017 and the Programme will be released shortly.