Forest structure as a determinant of grouse brood occurrence - An analysis linking LiDAR data with presence/absence field data

摘要

Forest-dwelling grouse, and especially their broods, are highly dependent on forest and vegetation structure. In countries with intense forest management, it follows that the quality of their habitats is directly affected by forestry operations. Therefore, we must know which structural features of forests define a good grouse habitat and how the abundance of these features is affected by the forestry operations. Nowadays, airborne lidar (light detection and ranging) is being frequently used for forest inventories and terrain mapping. These data is becoming more and more publicly available and it holds detailed information about the forests and the vegetation structure; a key component of wildlife habitats.