BETA-FOR_SP1_Forest structure_Mobile laser scanning

We used mobile laser scanning (MLS) to capture the three-dimensional forest structure of the patches and derived forest structural indices. Each plot was scanned using a ZEB Horizon laser scanner (GeoSLAM Ltd., Nottingham, UK). Starting at the patch center, we carried the handheld laser scanner through the patch in outward spirals, circling the patch center with increasingly larger distance until reaching 30 m, then returning to the center to close the scan loop. The resulting point clouds were processed in the Faro Connect software (Faro Technologies Inc., Lake Marry, USA) to perform simultaneous locating and mapping (SLAM) using the “forest” environment as presetting. The resulting .laz-files were subsampled to 1 cm resolution, noise filtered to remove outliers, subsequently normalized to eliminate terrain effects and finally exported as xyz-files.