Bienvenue Sur le Grand Voyage / Welcome to the Big Trip!

Join me on my coast-to-coast journey as part of the Silva21 (my PhD project’s parent grant) ‘Scan-tiques’ road tour. So-called ‘Scan-Tiques’ as we are conducting 3D laser scans using Lidar in many different forests along our way home to Vancouver. These 3D scans show the tree structure and the topography. You can see an example of this in GIF below:

Scantiques in Action!

There is a huge advantage of Lidar data for forest structure. In fact, when I queried Web of Science we can see its application to science has increased radidly over the last ten years. Just look at how the number of publications has changed!

The number of publications looking at Lidar and forest structure in the last 20 years. Search terms are: "Lidar OR Laser Scanning OR ALS or Drone Lidar AND Forest AND Structure OR Vegetation OR composition"

Our journey started in Nova Scotia at Oak Island Conference Center after the Silva21 Annual General Meeting. We will finish in two weeks back home in Vancouver, BC. Here is a list of the sites we will visit on our way back home.

Sites

1. Acadia Research Forest (two experiments)
2. A spruce trial in northern New Brunswick (perfect time to practice french!)
3. Drought Exclusion in New Brunswick
4. Commercial Thinning in Nipigon, Ontario 
5. Spruce-Pine planting in interio British Columbia

Where are we now?

I am writing this blog post four days into our trip with two very full days of flying under our belt. We spent Canada Day (Saturday) in Acadia Research Forest flying two different sites: (1) a flight in a cutblock which will be planted with 10 different tree species of all different geographic origins (a project called TransX) and (2) a site of older red-spruce of mixed genetic origins. In this post, I am going to highlight the first site, TransX, and the new technology we helped deploy at the second site. In these blogs, I am going to keep a list important scientific topics. Check out the list at the base of this blog for detailed definitions.

TransX

TransX is a common garden experiment for common East Coast tree species. A common garden experiment places plants with parents of different geographic origins in the same common growing experiment. In TransX – a Sugar Maple (Acer Saccarum) whose parent trees are from Virginia might be planted right next to a Sugar Maple whose parent trees are from southern New Brunswick. One goal of TransX is to test the hypothesis if a tree from warmer climates will grow better in warmer conditions by planting trees from a colder climate in the same growing conditions and comparing the two.

New Hyperspectral Technology

At our second site we met up with Olivier Van Lier and Funda Ogut from Natural Resources Canada. This project recently acquired a novel hyperspectral drone made by headwall headwall-hyperspectral . What does hyperspectral mean? Great question! Surfaces – any type of surface – reflects electromagnetic waves that wavelength (or the length of wave) across a range referred to as the ‘electromagnetic spectrum’ or EMS for short. We see in the visible part of the EMS. Hyperspectral sees across the EMS and captures more unique colors than our eyes. This type of technology is extremely useful for seeing small differences in tree health. Here is a link to a paper that talks more: Paper-Link We flew Lidar of the site and then spent some time trying to get the second drone up and running – but the calibration for hyperspectral imaging is INTENSE! While we did not stay around to see the hyperspectral drone (field work and weather called us away) – I did get the opportunity to fly my heaviest drone yet (a whole 6 pounds!). See a picture of the two drones below.

The new Headwall drone with hyperspectral sensor (left) and the DJI Zenmuse (right) both mounted on DJI M300 drones.

Key Science Terms

  • Lidar - Light detection and ranging: a method that emits a light-pulse from a sensor (ours is on a drone) and measures the time it takes for this sensor to return. Horizontal distance = time * speed of the light, and when done many times this gives 3D structures
  • Common garden experiment: Plants with parents from geographic origins planted in the same common growing environment
  • Electromagnetic spectrum (EMS): describe the different types of electromagnetic waves that exist. Ranges from radio waves to gamma waves and covers the visible range (what we see!)
  • Hyperspectral imaging: captures all reflectance of an object in the EMS