Abstract
A continuous vegetation profile covering a 600 km transect set up N-S across the boreal forest region of western Canada was obtained by airborne laser altimetry, along with ground-truth measurements of standing timber stock and biomass in a total of 47 forest stands located directly under the laser profiling flight course. Subsequently using these data, a mathematical model proposed to relate the vegetation profile with timber stock on the basis of the allometry principle was tested, resulting in a highly significant coefficient of determination of 0.74 between the profile area and standing timber stock. A comparison between the actually measured timber stock of half the ground-truth stands and the estimated counterpart based on a regression determined from the remaining half, also revealed a discrepancy of as little as 0.9∼4.5% in total timber volume. Finally, based on the regression determined from all the 47 ground-truth measurements, the distribution of timber stock all along the 600 km transect was estimated, in which the maximum stocking appearing toward south declined sharply further south and more gradually north in a southerly skewed distribution with an overall mean timber stocking of 136 m3/ha.
