Before revision:  Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) can measure the three dimensional position of reflective material by sending laser pulses through the canopy. We examined the influence of three forest stand attributes: species, crown closure , and age  on the vertical distribution of aerial LiDAR returns of forested stands.
After revision:  Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) provides information on the vertical structure of forest stands enabling detailed and extensive ecosystem study. The vertical structure is often summarized by scalar features and data-reduction techniques that limit the interpretation of results. Instead, we quantified the influence of three forest stand attributes: species, crown closure , and age on the vertical distribution of aerial LiDAR returns of forested stands.