Elsevier

Remote Sensing of Environment

Volume 134, July 2013, Pages 152-161
Remote Sensing of Environment

Airborne laser scanner (LiDAR) proxies for understory light conditions

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2013.02.028Get rights and content

Highlights

  • We develop proxies for canopy cover and canopy closure from LiDAR data

  • We compare these proxies with Ellenberg indicator values for light (EIVlight)

  • LiDAR-based canopy closure better correlated with EIVlight than canopy cover

  • The method could estimate understory light availability across large landscapes

Abstract

Canopy cover and canopy closure are two closely related measures of vegetation structure. They are used for estimating understory light conditions and their influence on a broad range of biological components in forest ecosystems, from the demography and population dynamics of individual species to community structure. Angular canopy closure is more closely related to the direct and indirect light experienced by a plant or an animal than vertical canopy cover, but more challenging to estimate. We used airborne laser scanner (ALS) data to estimate canopy cover for 210 5-m radius vegetation plots in semi-open habitats and forests in protected nature areas in Denmark. The method was based on the area of Thiessen (Voronoi) polygons generated from the ALS points. We also estimated angular canopy closure by transforming ALS points from Cartesian to spherical coordinates, and calculating the percentage of azimuth and zenith angle intervals which contained points. We compared these estimates with field-based estimates using densiometer for 60 vegetation plots in forest. Finally, we compared ALS-based estimates of canopy cover and canopy closure to field-based estimates of understory light, based on the average Ellenberg indicator values for light for the plant species present in a given plot. The correlations of Ellenberg values with ALS-based canopy closure were higher (r2: 0.47) than those with ALS-based canopy cover (r2: 0.26) and densiometer readings (r2: 0.41) for the forest sites. ALS-based canopy closure is thus a reasonable indicator of understory light availability and has the advantage over field-based methods that it can be rapidly estimated for extensive areas.

Introduction

Understory light conditions within a forest are determined by a number of factors, with the structure of the tree canopy being particularly important (Jennings et al., 1999). The quantity, quality, and spatio-temporal distribution of light near the forest floor are primarily controlled by the structure of the canopy, which influence a broad range of biological components in forest ecosystems, from the demography and population dynamics of individual species (Svenning, 2002, Svenning and Magård, 1999) over species distributions (Svenning, 2000) to community structure (Frelich et al., 2003). Plants differ in their requirement for light, with some plants preferring to grow in shade, others in full sunlight, and yet others in intermediate conditions (Ellenberg, 1988). The forest canopy is often manipulated for creating conditions favourable for the survival and growth of certain tree species of commercial or, more rarely, of conservation value (Frelich et al., 2003). Both ecologists and foresters are therefore interested in mapping forest understory light conditions (Jennings et al., 1999).

Canopy cover and canopy closure are two closely related measures which are useful for estimating the microclimate and light conditions at the forest floor. These measures are also useful for assessing habitat suitability for different plants and animals, and for estimating functional variables such as Leaf Area Index (LAI). Canopy cover is the proportion of the forest floor covered by the vertical projection of tree crowns, and is often estimated in the field using transects and vertical sighting tubes. Canopy closure is the proportion of the sky obscured by vegetation when viewed from a single point, and is estimated from hemispherical photographs or using spherical densiometer (Jennings et al., 1999, Korhonen et al., 2006, Korhonen et al., 2011).

Canopy closure should provide a better description of the light conditions under a canopy than canopy cover as all the directions in which light reaches a point below the canopy are taken into consideration (Jennings et al., 1999). Hemispherical photographs are often used for estimating canopy gap fraction, the fraction of the sky visible from a point below the canopy, which is a complementary measure to canopy closure. Canopy gap fraction can be used to determine leaf area index (LAI), defined as the one-sided green leaf area per unit ground area in broadleaved canopies, or as the projected needle-leaved area per unit ground area in needle canopies (Law et al., 2008). The sky (light) and canopy (dark) pixels in a grey-scale hemispherical image are classified based on a threshold, which is dependent on sky conditions. Hemispherical photographs should be taken under uniform sky lighting either early or late in the day, or under overcast conditions, as sun glare may lead to overestimation of canopy gaps (Steele-Feldman et al., 2006).

Terrestrial laser scanners (TLS) have been used to estimate canopy gap fraction, providing results comparable to those from hemispherical photographs (Danson et al., 2007, Seidel et al., 2012). TLS have the advantage that they also provide additional information about the vertical structure of vegetation. Estimates of canopy gap fraction using a TLS are usually obtained from two orthogonal vertical scans (Danson et al., 2007), and the precision is high, especially in the areas where the scans overlap. However, field-based methods for the estimation of canopy cover or closure are time-consuming. Remote sensing could provide a method for large-scale mapping of canopy cover and closure, if these estimates could be validated by comparing them to field-based measurements (Fiala et al., 2006, Korhonen et al., 2011).

Airborne laser scanners (ALS) use light detection and ranging (LiDAR) to obtain geo-referenced points on and above the terrain. A few studies have explored the use of ALS in estimating canopy gap fraction and LAI. Riaño et al. (2004) found that the percentage of ALS points from the canopy had a high correlation with canopy gap fraction estimated from hemispherical photographs, and consequently also with LAI. The percentage of canopy hits were calculated within different radial distances from a point, and their results showed that the radius yielding the best estimates was influenced by canopy height. They additionally found differences between the estimates for deciduous and evergreen trees. Morsdorf et al. (2006) similarly considered different radial distances to compute canopy cover and LAI showing that radii of 2 m and 15 m provided the best results for canopy cover and LAI, respectively.

Most of the estimates of canopy cover from airborne laser scanner data are based on the proportion of echoes from vegetation above a certain height (Korhonen et al., 2011, Morsdorf et al., 2006), often referred to as fractional cover (Morsdorf et al., 2006). A method based on the number of points could overestimate canopy cover if laser scanning systems that collect multiple echoes are used in open forests, or there are variations in point density within an area due to overlapping flight strips. This problem could be addressed if surface area, rather than number of points, is used to estimate canopy cover. Areas of Thiessen polygons, also known as Voronoi or Dirichlet tessellations, generated from ALS points could be used to estimate canopy cover based on surface area.

There are inherent differences between estimates of the vertical distribution of foliage by airborne and terrestrial measurement techniques. The viewing directions of the two methods differ, with ALS looking downwards from above the canopy and terrestrial instruments looking upwards from the forest floor. Notably, the presence of tree trunks and branches in images affects estimates of LAI from hemispherical photographs, spherical densiometer and TLS (Seidel et al., 2012). For field-based instruments with an angular field of view, the observed volume is an upward facing cone. However, in previous studies concerning canopy closure the observed volume has been cylindrical (Solberg et al., 2009). The penetration of the canopy by ALS is dependent on sensor properties and flight settings, influencing point density, as well as the density of foliage. Even with these differences, if it is possible to derive an angular measure of canopy closure from ALS, it could provide a measure that is not influenced by sky conditions or the threshold used for binary classification, as is the case with hemispherical photography. It would be more representative of the upper part of the canopy than estimates from terrestrial instruments, and could cover large areas in much less time than field-based methods.

The extent to which ALS-derived canopy structure variables are good estimators of understory light availability may be evaluated by examining their correlation with the average Ellenberg indicator values for light (EIVlight) for plant species within understory vegetation plots (Diekmann, 1995, Dzwonko, 2001). Indicator values have been developed as estimates of the preferred light conditions for plants, first for Central Europe (Ellenberg, 1988) and later expanded to other regions, e.g., the British Isles (Hill et al., 1999). The Ellenberg indicator values range from 1 to 9, with 1 denoting species preferring deep shade and 9 denoting species preferring full sunlight (Ellenberg, 1988).

The overall aim of this study was to develop proxies for canopy cover and canopy closure based on discrete-return ALS data, and to evaluate whether these ALS-based canopy variables were correlated with understory light conditions as estimated from the understory vegetation by EIVlight. Our specific objectives were (1) to develop proxies for canopy cover and canopy closure based on ALS data, and (2) to determine whether there is a relationship between these ALS-based canopy structure proxies and EIVlight, predicting a stronger relationship for angular canopy closure than vertical canopy cover.

Section snippets

Study Area

A number of sites in Denmark are monitored through the National Monitoring and Assessment Programme for the Aquatic and Terrestrial Environment (NOVANA), designed to monitor Danish habitats within the European NATURA 2000 network established under the Habitats Directive of the European Union, 1992. The study area includes seven NOVANA sites, which constitute three groups of sites (Fig. 1), each including both semi-open habitat and forest. The sites included the following NATURA 2000 habitat

Field Datasets

Species occurrence data for vascular plants, bryophytes and lichens in the study area were collected under the NOVANA programme within 5-m radius plots in the open sites, and in 5- and 15-m radius plots in the forest sites. We used the species occurrence data collected in 2006, 2007 and 2009 (Table 1) for this study. The EIVlight for each of these species was selected as the modified values for Britain (Hill et al., 1999), whenever they were available, as these values are considered to be more

Processing of ALS Data

ALS data were collected in April and May 2006 by COWI (2007), an international engineering and planning company, using an Optech ALTM 3100 airborne laser scanner. The data were recorded at an altitude of 1.6 km with a footprint diameter of 50 cm at nadir (directly below the aircraft), with a 24° maximum off-nadir angle. The point density was approximately 1.5 m 2, including the points from overlapping flight strips. Both the first and the last echoes were used in the reported analyses. Aerial

Canopy Cover from ALS Data

Thiessen polygon-estimated ALS-based canopy cover visually corresponded well with the aerial images for each site. It was highly correlated (r = 0.99) with the canopy cover estimate based on number of echoes. The estimate based on Thiessen polygons was used for all further analyses, since it has a stronger theoretical relation with the surface area of canopy than the number of points. The plant-based EIVlight generally was higher for the open sites than for the forest sites, and in most cases

Discussion

Estimation of understory light conditions using ALS data could supplement, or even replace, field-based methods. ALS-based canopy closure was shown to be a better predictor of understory light conditions than ALS-based canopy cover. However, as with field-based estimates of canopy closure using densiometer, hemispherical photographs or TLS, the estimates are scale-dependent. Zhao and Popescu (2009) noted that the estimation of LAI from ALS data, as in optical remote sensing, is also

Conclusion

ALS-derived canopy variables has the big advantage that they can be rapidly estimated for extensive areas, and hence ALS may be better suited for large-area mapping of canopy variables than more accurate, but also more laborious, time-consuming and, sometimes, subjective field-based methods. Angular canopy closure estimates from ALS have been compared with estimates from hemispherical photographs (Korhonen et al., 2011). All the previous studies compared fractional cover, or laser penetration

Acknowledgement

We gratefully acknowledge funding from the Aarhus University Research Foundation through the Center for Interdisciplinary Geospatial Informatics Research (CIGIR), and the Danish National Research Foundation through the Center for Massive Data Algorithmics (MADALGO). We also thank COWI, Denmark for the LiDAR point cloud data and the aerial images of the study area, and the reviewers for their comments and suggestions.

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