Approximately 2.5 × 106 square kilometers of the Amazon forest are currently degraded by fire, edge effects, timber extraction, and/or extreme drought, representing 38% of all remaining forests in the region. Carbon emissions from this degradation total up to 0.2 petagrams of carbon per year (Pg C year−1), which is equivalent to, if not greater tha...
Radiative transfer models that use spatially explicit 3D models to represent forest structure can simulate highly realistic Earth Observation (EO) data. Such simulations at the forest stand scale (≥ 1-ha) allow for more direct calibration and validation of EO products. Explicitly reconstructing 3D forest structures at scales that can be compared di...
Terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) is being recognised as a key technology in forest monitoring by providing highly detailed in-situ measurements of 3D vegetation structure. While applications of TLS forest point clouds are manifold, including plant functional trait analysis and plant area index (PAI) estimation, it is a particularly valuable tool wi...
Tropical montane forests store high amounts of soil organic carbon (SOC). However, global warming may affect these stocks via enhanced soil respiration. Improved insight into the temperature response of SOC respiration can be obtained from in and ex situ warming studies. In situ warming via the translocation of intact soil mesocosms was carried out...
Forests are a substantial terrestrial carbon sink, but anthropogenic changes in land use and climate have considerably reduced the scale of this system1. Remote-sensing estimates to quantify carbon losses from global forests2-5 are characterized by considerable uncertainty and we lack a comprehensive ground-sourced evaluation to benchmark these est...
Both rural and urban forests play an important role in terrestrial carbon cycling. Forest carbon stocks are typically estimated from models predicting the aboveground biomass (AGB) of trees. However, such models are often limited by insufficient data on tree mass, which generally requires felling and weighing parts of trees. In this study, thirty-o...
Detailed observation techniques are needed to reveal the underlying eco-physiological mechanisms driving tree growth processes. Terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) has proven to be a feasible technique for characterizing trees, but it has still remained unclear whether TLS point clouds and the existing point cloud processing methods can be used for ca...
Understanding what controls global leaf type variation in trees is crucial for comprehending their role in terrestrial ecosystems, including carbon, water and nutrient dynamics. Yet our understanding of the factors influencing forest leaf types remains incomplete, leaving us uncertain about the global proportions of needle-leaved, broadleaved, ever...
Terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) has emerged as a valuable technology for forest monitoring, providing detailed 3D measurements of vegetation structure. However, the semantic understanding of tropical tree point clouds, particularly the separation of woody and non-woody components, remains a challenge. Therefore, this paper addresses the gaps in bo...
Determining the drivers of non-native plant invasions is critical for managing native ecosystems and limiting the spread of invasive species(1,2). Tree invasions in particular have been relatively overlooked, even though they have the potential to transform ecosystems and economies(3,4). Here, leveraging global tree databases(5-7), we explore how t...
