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Terrestrial Scanning / Forestry Assessment & Agriculture

Martin Jacobs et al.: How drought stress becomes visible upon detecting tree shape using terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) 16.03.2021

Due to climate change, the occurrence of drought events with essential effects on trees will arise. The impact of severe drought stress on trees’ vitality with regard to growth has often been analysed using traditional, easy-to-measure variables, such as diameter at breast height (d1.3). Another commonly used tree-vitality indicator is crown transparency, which is not directly measurable and has to be determined qualitatively by well-trained field experts. In this study, the authors focused on tree dimensions, as potential vitality indicators, that are difficult to measure. The new approach for the efficient monitoring of tree vitality introduced here revealed three-dimensional change of tree shape due to drought stress.

The full article has been published in the Forest Ecology and Management (Volume 489, 1 June 2021, 118975), publishing house: Elsevier. The full abstract and the according download information are available here.