An Overview of Remote Sensing for Mountain Vegetation and Snow Cover

Abstract

Climate change has profoundly impacted elements of land surface at high latitudes and elevations, especially snow and vegetation [...]

Environmentally Induced Snow Transmittance Variations in the Photosynthetic Spectral Domain: Photobiological Implications for Subnivean Vegetation under Climate Warming Conditions

“…In this work, we also address these issues. Hence, the qualitative and quantitative observations derived from our findings also provide fundamental elements to be incorporated into broader interdisciplinary studies and remote sensing applications involving the ecological implications of snow and vegetation interactions [6,7,15] and their connections with global warming [9,12,14].…”

“…Despite the important connections between environmentally induced alterations in snow PAR transmission profiles and changes in subnivean vegetation, which can lead to pivotal feedback effects [12,78] on the planet's climate patterns and on the sustainability of its ecosystems [6,13], there is a noticeable paucity of measured transmittance data to support comprehensive studies in this area. Such studies are needed to further the current understanding about the impact of snow cover alterations on vegetation [9,12,15]. Thus, to systematically examine those connections while coping with measured data constraints, we employed an in silico experimental approach and used available reflectance measurements for snow to establish baseline references (Section 3.1) for our investigation.…”

“…We note that the greening phenomenon has been the object of a wide gamut of interdisciplinary studies supported by field and remote sensing observations [6,9,[13][14][15]78].…”

“…Besides having a major influence on the world's radiation balance [1,2] and its atmosphere [3,4], snow represents an essential source of fresh water in different regions of the planet [5,6], and it is central for the sustainability of those regions' ecosystems [7,8]. Accordingly, alterations in snow cover can have significant environmental ramifications [9]. In particular, they can lead to changes in vegetation phenology [10,11], which, in turn, can have a considerable impact on the global climate [6,12].…”

“…Despite these notable scientific efforts, however, there is still a considerable knowledge gap regarding the effects of snow cover alterations on the vegetation of these regions [12]. In fact, as alluded to by several research groups [9,12,[16][17][18], the subnivean ecology of plants and their interactions with the covering snowpack remain largely overlooked in the related literature and, for all practical purposes, absent from climate impact models of high latitude and high altitude vegetation.…”