Lidar Boosts 3D Ecological Observations and Modelings: A Review and Perspective

The advent of lidar has revolutionized the way we observe and measure vegetation structure from the ground and from above and represents a major advance toward the quantification of 3D ecological observations. Developments in lidar hardware systems and data processing algorithms have greatly improved the accessibility and ease of use of lidar observations in ecological studies. A wide range of studies has been devoted to accurately measuring and modeling vegetation structural and functional attributes from lidar data across a range of spatial scales (from individual organs to global scales) and ecosystem types (e.g., forest, agricultural, grassland, and urban ecosystems).