Accurate estimates of canopy structure like canopy cover (CC), Leaf Area Index (LAI), crown volume (Vcr), as well as tree and stand structure like stem volume (V_st) and basal area (G), are considered essential measures to manage poplar plantations effectively as they are correlated with the growth rate and the detection of possible stress. This research exploits the possibility of developing a precision forestry application using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), terrestrial digital camera and traditional field measurements to monitor poplar plantation variables. We set up the procedure using explanatory variables from the Grey Level Co-occurrence Matrix textural metrics (Entropy, Variance, Dissimilarity and Contrast) calculated based on UAV multispectral imagery. Our results show that the GCLM texture derived by multispectral ortomosaic provides adequate explanatory variables to predict poplar plantation characteristics related to plants' canopy and stand structure. The evaluation of the models targeting the different poplar plantation variables (i.e. Vcr, G_ha, Vst_ha, CC and LAI) with the four GLCM explanatory variables (i.e. Entropy, Variance, Dissimilarity and Contrast) consistently higher or equal resulted to R² ≥0.86. © 2024, Editura Silvica. All rights reserved.

Understory is a key component of forest biodiversity. The structure of the forest stand and the horizontal composition of the canopy play a major role on the light regime of the understory, which in turn affects the abundance and the diversity of the understory plant community. Reliable assessments of canopy structural attributes are essential for forest research and biodiversity monitoring programs, as well as to study the relationship between canopy and understory plant communities. Canopy photography is a widely used method but it is still not clear which photographic techniques is better suited to capture canopy attributes at stand-level that can be relevant in forest biodiversity studies. For this purpose, we collected canopy structure and understory plant diversity data on 51 forest sites in the north-eastern Italian Alps, encompassing a diversity of forest types from low-elevation deciduous, to mixed montane stands to subalpine coniferous forests. Canopy images were acquired using both digital cover (DCP) and hemispherical (DHP) photography, and analysed canopy structural attributes. These attributes were then compared to tree species composition data to evaluate whether they were appropriate to differentiate between forest types. Additionally, we tested what canopy attributes derived from DCP and DHP best explained the species composition of vascular plants growing in the understory. We found that hemispherical canopy photography was most suitable to capture differences in forest types, which was best expressed by variables such as leaf inclination angle and canopy openness. On our sites, DHP-based canopy attributes were also able to better distinguish between different conifer forests. Leaf clumping was the most important attribute for determining plant species distribution of the understory, indicating that diverse gap structures create different microclimate conditions enhancing diverse plant species with different ecological strategies. This study supports the reliability of canopy photography to derive meaningful indicators in forest and biodiversity research, but also provide insights for increasing understory diversity in managed forests of high conservation value. © 2025