TERN Webinar - Seeing our vegetation change: why LiDAR time series matter for Australia’s future

What if we could watch Australia’s vegetation change in three dimensions - tree by tree, plot by plot, year by year? Vegetation structure is one of the clearest signs of how ecosystems are faring: carbon stored, habitat available, recovery after fire or drought, and resilience under a changing climate. A single snapshot is rarely enough. We need measurements that can be repeated consistently, from individual trees up to landscapes. In this Ecosystem Observations webinar, three researchers will walk through why terrestrial and airborne LiDAR are becoming practical tools for adding that time dimension to Australian ecosystem monitoring. Professor Kim Calders will set the scene. He will introduce LiDAR and vegetation structure in plain terms: what it measures, why those measurements matter for biomass, biodiversity and related challenges, and why repeat surveys over time change what we can say. He will compare terrestrial and UAV laser scanning, how to choose between them, and illustrate this with Australian examples. Dr Will Woodgate will then focus on TERN-related terrestrial LiDAR work. He will place TERN SuperSites in a global context and describe how terrestrial LiDAR at Ecosystem Processes sites is used to reconstruct 3D trees, estimate leaf area and detect subtle change, including why a regular revisit cycle matters more than a one-off survey.  Dr Shaun Levick will scale from the terrestrial to drone UAV LiDAR at TERN sites and beyond to widen the frame to national and international initiatives. He will discuss why linking to programs such as GEO-Trees and satellite calibration/validation is useful, progress toward consistent national information on vegetation height and structure, and how denser observations can help constrain models used for carbon accounting. Together, the speakers will show how detailed measurements on the ground and broader aerial coverage can work together, and why repeating those measurements is what lets us tell recovery from decline, and storage from loss. This is a session about building clearer evidence of vegetation change so we can understand what is happening in Australian landscapes and make better decisions.