This dataset is comprised of raw data from the NERC-funded, full waveform terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) deployed at sites on three continents, multiple countries and plot locations, which have been re-surveyed at different times.

The Harvard Forest plot is dominated by eastern hemlock and northern hardwood species, and will make an excellent comparison with several other hardwood plots in North America and China at similar latitudes. This plot is part of a global array of large-scale plots established by ForestGEO, which recently expanded sampling efforts into temperate forests to explore ecosystem processes beyond population dynamics and biodiversity. The Harvard Forest was designed to include a continuous, expansive, and varied natural forest landscape that will yield opportunities for the study of forest dynamics and demography while capturing a large amount of existing science infrastructure (e.g., eddy flux towers, gauged sections of a small watershed, existing smaller permanent plots) that will enable the integrated study of ecosystem processes (e.g., biogeochemistry, hydrology, carbon dynamics) and forest dynamics .

The project scanned all trees in the permanent sample plot (PSP) spanning a range of soil fertility and productivity gradients (24 x 1 ha PSPs in total). The aim of the weighing trees with lasers project is to test if current allometric relationships are invariant across continents or whether they differ significantly and require continental-level models; quantify the impact of assumptions of tree shape and wood density on tropical forest allometry; test hypotheses relating to pan-tropical differences in observed AGB (Above Ground Biomass) from satellite and field data. It also aims to apply new knowledge to assessing retrieval accuracy of forthcoming ESA BIOMASS and NASA GEDI (Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation Lidar) missions and providing calibration datasets; In addition to testing the capability of low-cost instruments to augment TLS data, including: UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicle) for mapping cover and canopy height; low-cost lidar instruments to assess biomass rapidly, at lower accuracy.