Applying remote sensing to biodiversity science

摘要: Biodiversity is organized hierarchically from individuals to populations major lineages in the tree of life. This hierarchical structure has consequences for remote sensing plant phenotypes and leads expectation that more distantly related plants will be spectrally distinct. Applying understand ecological processes biodiversity patterns builds on prior efforts integrate functional phylogenetic information organisms with their environmental distributions discern assembly rules govern species distributions. Spectral diversity metrics critical detecting expand many quantifying multiple dimensions biodiversity—taxonomic, phylogenetic, functional—and can applied at local (alpha diversity) regional (gamma scales examine variation among communities (beta diversity). Remote-sensing technologies stand illuminate nature biodiversity-ecosystem function relationships ecosystem service trade-offs over large spatial extents estimate uncertainties. Such advances improve our capacity manage natural resources Anthropocene.