Trunk volume estimation of irregular shaped Populus euphratica riparian forest using TLS point cloud data and multivariate prediction models

Background: Trunk volume(Vt) is an essential parameter for estimating forest stand volume, biomass, and carbon sequestration potential. As the dominant tree species in desert riparian forests, Euphrates poplar(Populus euphratica) has a high proportion of irregularly shaped tree trunks along the Tarim River, NW China, where the habitat is very fragile owing to long-term water stress. This causes uncertainty in estimation accuracy as well as technical challenges for forest surveys. Our study aimed to acquire P. euphratica Vtusing terrestrial laser scanning(TLS) and to establish a species-specific Vtprediction model.Methods: A total of 240 individual trees were measured by TLS multiple-station in 12 sampling plots in three sections along the lower reaches of the Tarim River. Vtwas calculated by a definite integration method using trunk diameters(Di) at every 0.1-m tree height obtained from TLS, and all data were split randomly into two sets:70% of data were used to estimate the model parameter calibration, and the remaining 30% were used for model validation. Sixteen widely used candidate tree Vtestimation models were fitted to the TLS-measured Vtand tree structural parameter data, including tree height(H), diameter at breast height(DBH), and basal diameter(BD). All model performances were evaluated and compared by the statistical parameters of determination coefficient(R^(2)),root mean square error(RMSE), Bayesian information criterion(BIC), mean prediction error(ME), mean absolute error(MAE), and modeling efficiency(EF), and accordingly the best model was selected.Results: TLS point cloud reflection intensity(RI) has advantageous in the extraction of data from irregular tree trunk structures. The P. euphratica tree Vtvalues showed obvious differences at the same tree height(H). There was no significant correlation between Vtand H(R^(2)=0.11, P < 0.01), which reflected the irregularity of P. euphratica trunk shape in the study area. Among all the models, model(14): Vt=0.909DBH1.184H0.487BD0.836(R^(2)=0.97, RMSE=0.14) had the best prediction capability for irregularly shaped Vtwith the highest R^(2), BIC(-37.96), and EF(0.96), and produced a smaller ME(0.006) and MAE(1.177) compared to other models. The prediction accuracy was 93.18%.Conclusions: TLS point cloud RI has a potential for nondestructively measuring irregularly shaped trunk structures of P. euphratica and developed Vtprediction models. The multivariate models more effectively predicted Vtfor irregularly shaped trees compared to one-way and general volume models.

Effects of light intensity on reflective ghost imaging

In this letter, we analyze the effects of light intensity find that the brightness of reflective ghost image can on reflective ghost imaging with thermal source. We be changed by modulating the light intensity of the source and the splitting ratio of the beam splitter. The signal-to-noise ratio will be improved by increa.sing the light intensity of the source. More important, we can obtain the reflective ghost image with high image quality by adopting a low light intensity signal beam and a high light intensity reference beam, which is better than the classical optical imaging, because it can reduce the effects of light on the object.