Merging technology with biology

Lasers are useful as pointers in public meetings, for aiming weapons, for directing energy and for many other purposes—but they also can play an important role in biology.Increasingly, biologists are employing the most complex technologies available, and merging multiple technologies to accomplish things that were never before possible in the natural sciences.In a recent example on the Big Island, scientists from the U.S.

Forest Service and Carnegie Institution combined high-accuracy GPS, plus advanced spectral imaging, with distance-measuring lasers to measure large-area changes in the natural landscape.
The equipment was mounted in aircraft, and permitted a three-dimensional detailed look at the forest cover.A report was published this month in the journal Ecosystems, under the title, "Environmental and Biotic Controls Over Above Ground Biomass Throughout a Tropical Rain Forest.”

The combined airborne technology is called the Carnegie Airborne Observatory. More on that
The satellite-based positioning inherent in GPS tells researchers precisely where on the ground they're looking. The laser, which can measure distances with six-inch accuracy, tells them the relative heights of various parts of the canopy, creating a three-dimensional image. The spectrometer can be used to distinguish individual plant species from each other—a koa tree has a distinctly different light signature from an 'olapa, for example.

By assessing the forest while flying over it, vast regions can be cataloged quickly. And preliminary results—comparing the aerial imagery with information gathered by foresters trudging through the woods on the ground—show that it works."These findings showed airborne data correlated with data derived from study plots on the ground," said Forest Service ecologist and paper co-author Flint Hughes, of the service's Institute of Pacific Islands Forestry.