This Major Research Instrumentation (MRI) award funds the development of a new, ground-based, scanning lidar field instrument, the Dual-Wavelength Echidna Lidar (DWEL), that will measure forest canopy structural parameters and provide 3-D reconstructions of forests for a variety of ecological and ecosystem applications. DWEL will simultaneously scan the forest canopy from below in two wavelengths: 1064 nm and near 1540 nm. At 1064 nm, most targets in forests (leaves, branches, trunks, leaf litter, soil) have similar reflectances in the range 0.4-0.6. At 1540 nm, however, leaves and photosynthetic materials are significantly darker than wood and branches. Accordingly, DWEL will more easily separate leaves from stems and branches, enhancing the accuracy of leaf area index and foliage profile retrievals. 3-D reconstructions, coupled with the dual wavelength capability, also open the door to direct measurements of volumes of trunks, branches, and leaves to estimate both green and woody biomass without allometric equations. The development of the DWEL will explore the use of 3-D visualization in college teaching in environmental biology, train undergraduates and graduates in instrumentation development, and explore opportunities for unique visualization in environmental education of secondary school students. Results from this study will be disseminated by students and faculty at regional and national meetings, and through the publication of peer-reviewed journal publications.
