Global satellite monitoring of climate-induced vegetation disturbances

Abstract

Terrestrial disturbances are accelerating globally, but their full impact is not quantified because we lack an adequate monitoring system. Remote sensing offers a means to quantify the frequency and extent of disturbances globally. Here, we review the current application of remote sensing to this problem and offer a framework for more systematic analysis in the future. We recommend that any proposed monitoring system should not only detect disturbances, but also be able to: identify the proximate cause(s); integrate a range of spatial scales; and, ideally, incorporate process models to explain the observed patterns and predicted trends in the future. Significant remaining challenges are tied to the ecology of disturbances. To meet these challenges, more effort is required to incorporate ecological principles and understanding into the assessments of disturbance worldwide. Global disturbance detection Changing climate has been linked to an increased rate of vegetation disturbances and mortality, promoting major

Forest fire may disrupt plant–microbial feedbacks

“…Our findings encourage further research into whether plant-microbial feedbacks and environmental factors interact as drivers of plant community structure and dynamics. Such research will be particularly important since disturbance events such as fire are predicted to become more frequent with global change (McDowell et al 2015).…”

“…This suggests that forest fire may have a sterilizing effect on soil communities and disrupt plant-microbial feedbacks. With predicted increases in fire frequency under a rapidly changing climate (McDowell et al 2015), understanding how plantmicrobial feedbacks are modified by forest fire will be important for predicting how forests might respond to these changing conditions.…”

Reconstructed Solar‐Induced Fluorescence: A Machine Learning Vegetation Product Based on MODIS Surface Reflectance to Reproduce GOME‐2 Solar‐Induced Fluorescence

“…Estimating gross primary production (GPP), or photosynthesis, at the global scale is essential for various applications ranging from yield prediction (Guan et al, 2016) to evaluating and predicting the impact of regional and global environmental changes (Friend et al, 2007; Le Quéré et al, 2009; McDowell et al, 2015; Poulter et al, 2014). To correctly evaluate the impact of environmental changes, such as land use land cover changes, remote sensing estimates of GPP require both fine spatial resolution, to capture the diversity of ecosystem response to environmental drivers, and long‐term record, to assess interannual variability and long‐term trends.…”

The role of Remote Sensing in land degradation assessments: opportunities and challenges

“…Besides mapping LD patterns, it is equally important to go one step further and to analyze the drivers of these processes for a correct interpretation of the produced maps of degraded land (Dubovyk et al, 2015a;McDowell et al, 2015). Remote Sensing and GIS provide an opportunity to link the mapped patterns of LD to their proximate causes using spatially explicit analysis.…”