Point clouds from terrestrial laser scanning from crowns of individual Scots pine trees

Abstract

Trees adapt to their growing conditions by regulating the sizes of their parts and their relationships. For example, removal or death of adjacent trees increases the growing space and the amount of light received by the remaining trees enabling their crowns to expand. Knowledge about the effects of silvicultural practices on crown size and shape as well as about the quality of branches affecting the shape of a crown is, however, still limited. Laser scanning (or Light detecting and ranging LiDAR) has provided new opportunities for characterizing trees in more detail in three-dimensional space. Especially terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) has increasingly been used in producing a variety of tree attributes. This data set includes 3D reconstruction of crowns of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) trees from sample plots with different thinning treatments. The thinning treatments include two intensities of thinning, three thinning types as well as control (i.e. no thinning treatment since the establishment). This data set can be used in developing point cloud processing algorithms for single tree crown characterization and for investigating variation in crown size and shape as well as the effects of various thinning treatments on crown size and shape of Scots pine trees grown in boreal forests.