Lidar: shedding new light on habitat characterization and modeling

Ecologists need data on animal-habitat associations in terrestrial and aquatic environments to design and implement effective conservation strategies. Habitat characteristics used in. models typically incorporate (1) field data of limited spatial extent and/or (2) remote sensing data that do not characterize the vertical habitat structure. Remote sensing tools that directly characterize three-dimensional (3-D) habitat structure and that provide data relevant to organism-habitat interactions across a hierarchy of scales promise to improve our understanding of animal-habitat relationships. Laser altimetry, commonly called light detection and ranging (lidar), is a source of geospatial data that can provide fine-grained information about the 3-D structure of ecosystems across broad spatial extents. In this review, we present a brief overview of lidar technology, discuss recent applications of lidar data in investigations of animal-habitat relationships, and propose future applications of this technology to issues of broad species-management and conservation interest.