Dokładność określania wybranych parametrów rozkładów pierśnic drzew w drzewostanach sosnowych za pomocą naziemnego skanowania laserowego

When using such methods as terrestrial laser scanning (TLS), one of the major factors influencing the accuracy of stand characteristics determination is the visibility of trees on a sample plot, which is often obscured by the shadow effect caused by trees located closer to the plot center. Because of this, the percentage of the identified trees and basal area depends on the distance from the plot center: the accuracy of stocking determination decreases as the plot radius increases. The values of such stand characteristics as average breast height diameter, standard deviation of tree diameters and percentiles of the tree diameters' distributions assessed based on all trees and the visible trees only are not significantly different from each other for circular sample plots with 20 m radius. Skewness and kurtosis are not significantly different in plots with radius of 5 and 10 meters. For the 15 m plot radius the difference was significant for about 15% of the analyzed plots. The obtained results correspond with previous findings that report that on the circular sample plots with radius up to 15 m the errors for the number of trees and basal area are relatively small and can be accepted in the practical inventory. The results support the circular sample plots size optimization, including measurements performed using a point cloud.