Document Type

Article

Publication Version

Version of Record

Publication Date

5-2017

Keywords

compact biomass LiDAR (CBL); terrestrial laser scanning (TLS); Structure-from-Motion (SfM) photogrammetry; grass; volume; aboveground biomass (AGB); disc pasture meter

Description

Above ground biomass (AGB) is a parameter commonly used for assessment of grassland systems. Destructive AGB measurements, although accurate, are time consuming and are not easily undertaken on a repeat basis or over large areas. Structure-from-Motion (SfM) photogrammetry and Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) are two technologies that have the potential to yield precise 3D structural measurements of vegetation quite rapidly. Recent advances have led to the successful application of TLS and SfM in woody biomass estimation, but application in natural grassland systems remains largely untested. The potential of these techniques for AGB estimation is examined considering 11 grass plots with a range of biomass in South Dakota, USA. Volume metrics extracted from the TLS and SfM 3D point clouds, and also conventional disc pasture meter settling heights, were compared to destructively harvested AGB total (grass and litter) and AGB grass plot measurements. Although the disc pasture meter was the most rapid method, it was less effective in AGB estimation (AGBgrass r 2 = 0.42, AGBtotal r 2 = 0.32) than the TLS (AGBgrass r 2 = 0.46, AGBtotal r 2 = 0.57) or SfM (AGBgrass r 2 = 0.54, AGBtotal r 2 = 0.72) which both demonstrated their utility for rapid AGB estimation of grass systems.

Publication Title

Remote Sensing

Volume

9

Issue

6

First Page

531

DOI of Published Version

10.3390/rs9060531

Pages

13

Type

text

Format

application/pdf

Language

en

Publisher

MDPI

Rights

Copyright © 2017 The Author(s)

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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