| Abstract |
Characterizing and visualizing the vertical trends of three-dimensional (3D) structures help the science community and the public better conceptualize and perceive the structural complexity embedded in nature. We used terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) coupled with transect vegetation surveys to characterize vegetative structural complexity at vertical profiles in the shrubland ecosystems of western Wyoming, USA. We developed a homogeneity index for canopy cover spatial distributions using a reverse measure of lacunarity computed on 3D laser returns from the canopy covers. Height-dependent spatial homogeneity functions were defined by plotting the homogeneity index calculated at every 5 cm height of vegetation. We observed two distinct spatial homogeneity functions, indicating the structural diversity of shrubland vegetation. We also found a transitional zone of changes in the spatial patterns from being more homogenous to being more heterogeneous within a range between average shrub height (µ) and one standard deviation (σ) from the average [µ, (µ + σ)]. The revealed significant changes in the spatial patterns of vegetation structures in shrublands ([µ, (µ + σ)]) are likely to repeat within other structural features on earth if the heights of target structures follow normal distributions. The introduced approach to reveal significant changes in the lacunarity (or reversely homogeneity) measures along the height can be improved and programmed as a GIS spatial-analysis toolbox to compute the average height of target structures from the 3D lidar point clouds. |
| Authors |
Khodabakhsh Zabihi   , Ginger B. Paige , Amarina Wuenschel null , Azadeh Abdollahnejad , Dimitrios Panagiotidis
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| Journal Info |
Not listed | Scirea Journal of Geosciences
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| Publication Date |
12/26/2023 |
| ISSN |
Not listed |
Type |
article |
| Open Access |
hybrid
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| DOI |
https://doi.org/10.54647/geosciences170298 |
| Keywords |
Tree Height Estimation (Score: 0.600639) , Tree Height-Diameter Models (Score: 0.573332) , Canopy Structure (Score: 0.572072) , Tree Allometry (Score: 0.538524) , Vegetation Monitoring (Score: 0.524557)
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