Monitoring vegetation- and geodiversity with remote sensing and traits

Abstract

Geodiversity has shaped and structured the Earth's surface at all spatio-temporal scales, not only through long-term processes but also through medium- and short-term processes. Geodiversity is, therefore, a key control and regulating variable in the overall development of landscapes and biodiversity. However, climate change and land use intensity are leading to major changes and disturbances in bio- and geodiversity. For sustainable ecosystem management, temporal, economically viable and standardized monitoring is needed to monitor and model the effects and changes in vegetation- and geodiversity. RS approaches have been used for this purpose for decades. However, to understand in detail how RS approaches capture vegetation- and geodiversity, the aim of this paper is to describe how five features of vegetation- and geodiversity are captured using RS technologies, namely: (i) trait diversity, (ii) phylogenetic/genese diversity, (iii) structural diversity, (iv) taxonomic diversity and (v) functional diversity. Trait diversity is essential for establishing the other four. Traits provide a crucial interface between in situ , close-range, aerial and space-based RS monitoring approaches. The trait approach allows complex data of different types and formats to be linked using the latest semantic data integration techniques, which will enable ecosystem integrity monitoring and modelling in the future. This article is part of the Theo Murphy meeting issue ‘Geodiversity for science and society’.

Ecosystem Integrity Remote Sensing—Modelling and Service Tool—ESIS/Imalys

“…Climate change, land use intensity, biological invasions and loss of bio-and geodiversity are causing to rapid environmental changes around the world, ranging from having local-to global-scale impact [1]. There is therefore an urgent need for operational monitoring and surveillance tools that take into account aspects of changing biodiversity [2], geodiversity [3][4][5] and, in particular, to monitor status and effects of land use intensification [6]. Landscapes and their processes and changes are complex, and the influence of drivers is multidimensional.…”

“…In recent decades, remote sensing (RS) has opened up new and increasingly better opportunities for continuous and objective ecosystem monitoring to detect the status of and changes in their interactions with phylogenetic/genese, structure, taxonomy and function in vegetation diversity [13,14]; geodiversity [3,15]; geomorphodiversity [4,16]; and landscape intensification and urbanisation [17][18][19] from local to global scale. Recent technological advances in spaceborne RS such as the Hyperspectral Environmental Mapping and Analysis Program (EnMap, [20]), the DLR Earth Sensing Imaging Spectrometer (DESIS, [21]) or the GEDI Ecosystem LiDAR [22]), as well as future planned missions such as NASA's Surface Biology and Geology (SBG) (https://sbg.jpl.nasa.gov/ (accessed on 1 January 2024), [23]), are largely available free of charge to enable deeper process understanding and accurate estimates of ecological variables.…”

“…The pixel reflections in an optical RS image are integral and the result of numerous complex interactions between the light (atmosphere) and the traits of the monitored land and water surface [3,24]. The basis of the spectral trait approach is the spectral variation hypothesis (SVH) approach [25], which assumes that the pixel-to-pixel variability of spectral response in a remotely sensed image is determined by a number of factors, such as the diversity of biochemical-structural characteristics of leaf and canopy traits, functional vegetation traits and their responses through interactions with topography, geodiversity, geomorphodiversity, environmental heterogeneity and land use intensity [25].…”

Geodiversity for science and society

“…Elsewhere in the themed issue, you will see papers on the measurement and monitoring of geodiversity and biodiversity, and conservation. This includes presentation of geodiversity data for Europe at two spatial resolutions [7]; development of a framework for quantifying geodiversity at local scales [8]; integrating vegetation and geodiversity monitoring using remote sensing and traits [9]; and quantitatively assessing geodiversity uniqueness and applying this to biodiversity conservation [10]. Seijmonsbergen et al [11] bridge geodiversity measurement and geoconservation by creating a global geodiversity map, which they use to assess the extent to which UNESCO Global Geoparks represent the different elements of geodiversity, finding some components are underrepresented.…”

“…Elsewhere in the themed issue, you will see papers on the measurement and monitoring of geodiversity and biodiversity, and conservation. This includes presentation of geodiversity data for Europe at two spatial resolutions [ 7 ]; development of a framework for quantifying geodiversity at local scales [ 8 ]; integrating vegetation and geodiversity monitoring using remote sensing and traits [ 9 ]; and quantitatively assessing geodiversity uniqueness and applying this to biodiversity conservation [ 10 ]. Seijmonsbergen et al .…”