Page 19 - Georgia Forestry - Issue2 - Spring 2018

Wildlife
High-precision TLS forest scans are revolutionizing the ability to assess wildlife habitat. Researchers are using this data to characterize variations in canopy openness and understory complexity in pollinator habitats across a variety of southern pine sites. With much less effort than shrub invento- ries, the roughness of the vegetation surface or distribution of shrubs in the understory can be described over large areas to match the highly accurate movement tracking patterns of bees and other low-flying insects.
In addition to collaborations outside Tall Timbers, the Fire Science lab is working with the Game Bird Lab to investigate wildlife habitat selection with greater resolution than ever before. Scans taken at Tall Timbers can be overlaid with quail GPS and radio tag monitoring data to evaluate what structures are utilized seasonally. This research can inform wildlife managers in forest structure prioritization.
Next Steps
The future of the use of these new technologies is bright. As the library of TLS scans expands, individual forest types can be applied to air- borne LiDAR to form composite maps of entire regions that can inform burn prioritization or small sections can be integrated into large fire behavior models in a building-block fashion to model a manager’s prescribed fire behavior or smoke transport.
Over time, LiDAR sensors have been advanc- ing in capability and ease of use, and soon these tools will not be out of reach to the average user. Each of these technological improvements offers a new window through which to view the forested ecosystems that we study and manage. The Pre- scribed Fire Science Consortium will continue to share resources and collaborate to make these advancements relevant to management through the research conducted at Tall Timbers.
TALL TIMBERS IS A PRIVATE NON-PROFIT RESEARCH STATION AND LAND CONSERVANCY WITH A FOCUS ON MANAGEMENT OF FIRE- DEPENDENT ECOSYSTEMS AND CONSERVATION EFFORTS DEDICATED TO HELPING PROTECT THE RURAL LANDSCAPE AND TRADITIONAL LAND USES OF SOUTH GEORGIA AND NORTH FLORIDA.
A LiDAR scan of understory shrub cover on Tall Timbers. These scans will be overlaid with quail monitoring data to relate to habitat preferences.
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