Malhi Yadvinder, Jackson Tobias, Patrick Bentley Lisa, Lau Alvaro, Shenkin Alexander, Herold Martin, Calders Kim, Bartholomeus Harm, Disney Mathias I
Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and the Environment, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, Oxon OX1 3QY, UK.
Department of Biology, Sonoma State University, 1801 East Cotati Avenue, Rohnert Park, CA 94928, USA.
Interface Focus. 2018 Apr 6;8(2):20170052. doi: 10.1098/rsfs.2017.0052. Epub 2018 Feb 16.
Terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) opens up the possibility of describing the three-dimensional structures of trees in natural environments with unprecedented detail and accuracy. It is already being extensively applied to describe ecosystem biomass and structure vary between sites, but can also facilitate major advances in developing and testing mechanistic theories of tree form and forest structure, thereby enabling us to understand trees and forests have the biomass and three-dimensional structure they do. Here we focus on the ecological challenges and benefits of understanding tree form, and highlight some advances related to capturing and describing tree shape that are becoming possible with the advent of TLS. We present examples of ongoing work that applies, or could potentially apply, new TLS measurements to better understand the constraints on optimization of tree form. Theories of resource distribution networks, such as metabolic scaling theory, can be tested and further refined. TLS can also provide new approaches to the scaling of woody surface area and crown area, and thereby better quantify the metabolism of trees. Finally, we demonstrate how we can develop a more mechanistic understanding of the effects of avoidance of wind risk on tree form and maximum size. Over the next few years, TLS promises to deliver both major empirical and conceptual advances in the quantitative understanding of trees and tree-dominated ecosystems, leading to advances in understanding the ecology of why trees and ecosystems look and grow the way they do.
地面激光扫描（TLS）使以前所未有的细节和精度描述自然环境中树木的三维结构成为可能。它已被广泛应用于描述生态系统生物量，而且不同地点的生态系统结构有所不同，但它也能推动在树木形态和森林结构的机械理论的发展和测试方面取得重大进展，从而使我们能够理解树木和森林为何具有它们现有的生物量和三维结构。在这里，我们关注理解树木形态所面临的生态挑战和带来的益处，并强调随着TLS的出现，在捕捉和描述树木形状方面正成为可能的一些进展。我们展示了正在进行的工作的例子，这些工作应用或有可能应用新的TLS测量方法，以更好地理解对树木形态优化的限制。诸如代谢比例理论等资源分配网络理论可以得到检验和进一步完善。TLS还可以为木质表面积和树冠面积的比例关系提供新方法，从而更好地量化树木的新陈代谢。最后，我们展示了如何能更深入地理解规避风险对树木形态和最大尺寸的影响。在未来几年里，TLS有望在对树木和以树木为主的生态系统的定量理解方面带来重大的实证和概念性进展，从而推动我们在理解树木和生态系统为何以它们现有的外观和生长方式存在的生态学方面取得进展。
