The terrestrial laser scanning revolution in forest ecology...now out!

Our special issue of Interface Focus from the The Royal Society is now published! The issue "The terrestrial laser scanning revolution in forest ecology" features 11 papers from some of the world's leading experts on TLS. Read The Royal Society Blog here:
https://blogs.royalsociety.org/publishing/laser-scanning-revolution/

The contents page is here:
http://rsfs.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/8/2

Mark, Lucy and Fadal have published the latest SALCA paper in the issue and it can be downloaded here:
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Francis_Danson

Mark's Presentation at Royal Society meeting

Here is a video of Mark Danson's presentation of the Royal Society meeting held in February this year. Sound recordings of all the presentations are available at:
https://royalsociety.org/science-events-and-lectures/2017/02/forest-ecology/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apkIN-U5jhE

 

Royal approval for TLS research!

Last week saw 70 researchers from around the world attend a two-day meeting at the Royal Society’s country venue, Chicheley Hall, in Northamptonshire, to discuss “The Terrestrial Laser Scanning Revolution in Forest Ecology”. The meeting, organised by Mark Danson, was a Theo Murphy Scientific Meeting funded by The Royal Society and featured a star line-up of keynote presentations by researchers from around the world, with associated discussion and poster sessions. The speakers were drawn from the UK, US, Germany, Finland, Australia, China and Switzerland with other participants representing a further five countries.

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.

The meeting discussed the technology, applications and challenges of using TLS in forest ecology and showed how it is essential to improve the accuracy of measurements of the biomass of forests so as to better quantify the storage of carbon in such ecosystems. TLS devices can do this by ‘weighing trees with lasers’ based on three-dimensional reconstructions of complete forests. The dynamic nature of forest growth was another important theme with Professor Danson describing how a new TLS device, the Salford Advanced Laser Canopy Analyser, or SALCA for short, can be used to map the growth and fall of leaves in UK woodlands. Outputs from the meeting will include a special issue of the Royal Society’s in-house journal Interface Focus which will be edited by Professor Danson and his colleagues from the Universities of Newcastle, University College London

New video on SALCA research

This is an extract from the new University of Salford, Ecosystems and Environment Research Centre (EERC) video highlighting areas of research excellence. This extract features an interview with Mark Danson and Fadal Sasse in Peel Park on the University of Salford campus.

https://youtu.be/R0X9JYGxEXM

 

 

 

 

The full video can be viewed here: 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyTUGi6fTE4

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.