The terrestrial laser scanning revolution in forest ecology

The full programme of 16 invited speakers for our Royal Society Theo Murphy Scientific meeting in February 2017 is now available at: https://royalsociety.org/science-events-and-lectures/2017/02/forest-ecology/

We have around 50 participants to date and there are still places available. If you would like to attend (there is no registration fee) press the 'Request an invitation' button from the link above.

Poster contributions are welcomed and again follow the guidelines on the Royal Society's web page

PhD for Lucy Schofield

Congratulations to Lucy Schofield who successfully defended her PhD last week. Lucy's thesis is the first study to examine the application of dual-wavelength full-waveform data from the Salford Advanced Laser Canopy Analyser (SALCA) for measuring the phenology of woodland canopies. The thesis was entitled "Quantifying structural change in UK woodland canopies with a dual-wavelength full-waveform Terrestrial Laser Scanner". The thesis will be available as a pdf in a few weeks time. For further details contact Lucy at l.a.schofield@edu.salford.ac.uk

Lucy and SALCA at Delamere Forest, UK

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.

Neural Network calibration of SALCA

This new paper just published decribes our research to calibrate the SALCA data to apparent reflectance. This method is now being applied to the SALCA data routinely to support quantitative analysis of the dual-wavelength spectral information.

To read the paper click this link

Lucy Schofield's three minute thesis presentation

As part of the University of Salford's Postgraduate Annual Research conference (SPARC) Lucy entered the 'Three minute thesis completion' and you can see the video here. The standard of the presentations was very high and Lucy almost won...
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9VJh1hFyqquZHZ6SzBwRjVKa1U/view?usp=sharing

TLSIIG forum at RSPSoc 2015 conference

Mark Danson (Salford University, UK) and Crystal Schaaf (University of Massachusetts Boston) hosted a Terrestrial Laser Scanner International Interest Group (TLSIIG) forum as part of the Annual Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Society (RSPSoc) held this year in Southampton (8-11 September). Mark and Crystal described the origins and work of the TLSIIG and a lively discussion followed. On the last day of the conference TLSIIG members Lucy Walker, Mark Danson, Rachel Gaulton and Mat Disney contributed to the excellent "Forestry" session chaired by Professor Ross Hill (Bournemouth University) and all talked about the wide range of research currently underway with TLS.

3D analysis of hedgerow structure with SALCA

Mark Danson was in Cambridgeshire last week helping out with a Newcastle University and Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) project to assess the 3D structure of hedgerows for biodiversity management. Dr Rachel Gaulton and PhD researcher Lyndsey Graham are working with Drs France Gerard and Jo Staley from CEH, Wallingford, UK. The test site on Wimpole Estate is a 200 m section of hedgerow that has undergone a range of management treatments. SALCA was used to measure 18 different stretches of hedgerow, along with Newcastle's Leica scanner. Lyndsey and the team measured a wide range of ecological parameters and will now assess the laser scanner data for characterising hedgerow structure.

Rachel sets up SALCA at one of the hedgerow plots

Lyndsey sets up the Leica