Estimating vegetation biomass and cover across large plots in shrub and grass dominated drylands using terrestrial lidar and machine learning

•Estimated canopy cover and biomass of vegetation across 1-ha plots.•Decision tree models with Random Forests of height statistical descriptors.•Models used maximum of five descriptors to predict canopy cover and biomass.•60% variance explained in shrub and annual grass cover and biomass.•Our models did not require classifying and delineating individual plants.