Some scientists wanted to count each and every one of the trees in China. Surprisingly, they have achieved it

China is an immense country, the fourth country with greater extension in the world after Russia, Canada and the United States. The country has a wide variety of ecosystems, some of which house a countless amount of trees. Or almost countless.

142.6 million trees. A new study has estimated the total number of trees in China. The result of the count is 142.6 billion. This implies that the Asian giant has about 100 trees per inhabitant.

More than a count. The study not only offers a mere count of the number of trees but also offers us valuable information about its location, density and characteristics of the different types of ecosystems that can be found in China.

For example, the team found that the coniferous forests of the temperate areas were the densest in the country, reaching some 720 trees per hectare. The 87.9 billion trees that can be found in this type of environments represent about 60% of the country’s total.

A country of contrasts. The forested areas of China are especially concentrated in the south and northeast of the country. The study also analyzed the tree density of the different Chinese hydrographic basins, as well as the different administrative divisions of the Asian country.

In view of drone. For the study, the team He turned to Lidar technologyan analogue of the radar that replaces radio waves with light waves. These sensors were mounted in drones to cover 1,400 square kilometers of wooded territory. The result: 400TB of processed data.

The methodology used is not exempt from limitations. In dense forest areas, the tree canopy, the upper part of these trees, can overshadow the lidar view, causing smaller trees to be hidden from counting. That is why those responsible for the study believe that this is a conservative estimate of the number of trees in the country’s forests.

The details of the study were published In an article In the magazine Science Bulletin.

Protection plans The project will serve to evaluate Chinese environmental conservation plans. Something easy taking into account the magnitude of plans such as “Great green wall” wave “Billion Tree campaign”

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Image | Tom Fisk