Lasers and drones assess health of world forests and help track climate change

Highly detailed 3D scans of dense tropical rain forest plots are enabling precise estimates of tree structure, volume and stored carbon, as part of a first-of-its-kind pilot initiative, led by UCL researchers. Published in the journal Earth System Science Data, the finalized full dataset of the 3D tree census is helping scientists better understand how much biomass (or plant material) forests contain, an important step in understanding how much carbon is stored across the entire forest.