Publications
NIBIOs employees contribute to several hundred scientific articles and research reports every year. You can browse or search in our collection which contains references and links to these publications as well as other research and dissemination activities. The collection is continously updated with new and historical material.
2026
Authors
Stefano Puliti Binbin Xiang Maciej Wielgosz Eivind Handegard Nicolas Cattaneo Marta Vergarechea Terje Gobakken Juha Hyyppä Erik Næsset Mikko Vastaranta Tuomas Yrttimaa Rasmus AstrupAbstract
Accurately determining the age of individual trees is important for understanding forest dynamics, tree growth, site productivity and describing ecological processes. Traditional methods, such as dendrochronological coring, are invasive, labor-intensive, and costly. This study investigates the use of deep learning (DL) to predict tree age from high-density laser scanning data as a scalable, non-invasive alternative. The dataset includes approximately 1700 tree point clouds from approx. 1 K trees across Norway, Sweden, and Finland, encompassing Norway spruce (Picea abies) and Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) and a broad range of tree age and developmental stages, from young seedlings (1 year) to old trees (∼350 years). Data were collected using terrestrial, mobile, and high-density airborne laser scanning platforms, enabling the development of sensor-agnostic models. We evaluated multiple modelling approaches, from linear regression to transformer architectures, using both training-from-scratch and fine-tuning strategies. Models fine-tuned starting from pre-trained weights from ForestFormer3D's U-Net as well as the transformer architecture (PointTransformerV3) trained from scratch, proved effective for age regression (RMSE ≤23 years). Although our analysis was limited to two tree species, we demonstrated that a single joint age-estimation model can be successfully trained for both species. We demonstrate that models trained on high-resolution data can generalize to lower-resolution, less costly inputs, provided that data augmentations that mimic reduced resolutions are included during training. This study presents a data-driven framework for estimating tree age without destructive sampling. The findings support the potential for AI-based methods to complement or replace traditional age estimation techniques in forest inventory and monitoring.
Authors
Josef Taher Eric Hyyppä Matti Hyyppä Klaara Salolahti Xiaowei Yu Leena Matikainen Antero Kukko Matti Lehtomäki Harri Kaartinen Sopitta Thurachen Paula Litkey Ville Luoma Markus Holopainen Gefei Kong Hongchao Fan Petri Rönnholm Matti Vaaja Antti Polvivaara Samuli Junttila Mikko Vastaranta Stefano Puliti Rasmus Astrup Joel Kostensalo Mari Myllymäki Maksymilian Kulicki Krzysztof Stereńczak Raul de Paula Pires Ruben Valbuena Juan Pedro Carbonell-Rivera Jesús Torralba Yi Chen Chen Lukas Winiwarter Markus Hollaus Gottfried Mandlburger Narges Takhtkeshha Fabio Remondino Maciej Lisiewicz Bartłomiej Kraszewski Xinlian Liang Jianchang Chen Eero Ahokas Kirsi Karila Eugeniu Vezeteu Petri Manninen Roope Näsi Heikki Hyyti Siiri Pyykkönen Peilun Hu Juha HyyppäAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Abstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Darius KviklysAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Darius KviklysAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Darius KviklysAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Darius KviklysAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Darius KviklysAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Darius KviklysAbstract
No abstract has been registered
Authors
Darius KviklysAbstract
No abstract has been registered