New insights on ecosystem structure from LIDAR observsations

Patterns of ecosystem structure across landscapes and over time provide sensitive indicators of the impact of human activities and natural disturbance. Until recently, broad-scale characterization of ecosystem structure was largely limited to two dimensions. In the past 10 years a vertical dimension has been added to landscape- and global-scale assessments using airborne and satellite-based laser techniques (lidar). Lidar instruments directly sense vertical structure by recording the “echo” from laser pulses reflecting off vegetation and ground surfaces. As lidar is applied to a range of problems in ecology and management, existing approaches to understanding the structural, functional and spatial aspects of ecosystem are beginning to be recast within the context of the three-dimensional physical ecosystem structure.