The collection of ecological data in the field is essential to diagnose, monitor and manage ecosystems in a sustainable way. Since acquisition of this information through traditional methods are generally time-consuming, due to the capability of recording large volumes of data in short time periods, automation of data acquisition sees a growing trend. Terrestrial laser scanners (TLS), particularly LiDAR sensors, have been used in ecology, allowing to reconstruct the 3D structure of vegetation, and thus, infer ecosystem characteristics based on the spatial variation of the density of points. However, the low amount of information obtained per beam, lack of data analysis tools and the high cost of the equipment limit their use. This way, a low-cost TLS (<10k$) was developed along with data acquisition and processing mechanisms applicable in two case studies: an urban garden and a target area for ecological restoration. The orientation of LiDAR was modified to make observations in the vertical plane and a motor was integrated for its rotation, enabling the acquisition of 360 degree data with high resolution. Motion and location sensors were also integrated for automatic error correction and georeferencing. From the data generated, histograms of point density variation along the vegetation height were created, where shrub stratum was easily distinguishable from tree stratum, and maximum tree height and shrub cover were calculated. These results agreed with the field data, whereby the developed TLS has proved to be effective in calculating metrics of structural complexity of vegetation.

翻译：野外生态数据的收集对于以可持续方式诊断、监测和管理生态系统至关重要。由于传统方法获取此类信息通常耗时较长，而自动化数据采集技术能够在短时间内记录大量数据，因此数据采集的自动化呈现增长趋势。地面激光扫描仪（TLS），特别是LiDAR传感器，已广泛应用于生态学领域，可重建植被的三维结构，并基于点密度空间变化推断生态系统特征。然而，单束激光获取的信息量低、缺乏数据分析工具以及设备成本高昂限制了其应用。为此，本研究开发了一种低成本（<1万美元）地面激光扫描仪，并配套了适用于两个案例研究（城市花园和生态修复目标区域）的数据采集与处理机制。通过改装LiDAR的扫描方向以在垂直平面进行观测，并集成旋转电机，实现了高分辨率360度数据采集。同时集成运动与定位传感器，用于自动误差校正和地理配准。基于生成的数据，绘制了沿植被高度的点密度变化直方图，可清晰区分灌木层和乔木层，并计算了最大树高和灌木覆盖度。这些结果与野外实测数据吻合，表明所开发的TLS在计算植被结构复杂性指标方面具有有效性。