Javier Pacheco-Labrador

Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry Jena | BGC · Department of Biogeochemical Integration

Biodiversity conservation is a top priority on the scientific and political agenda since its accelerated loss jeopardizes ecosystem services and resilience. However, the lack of synoptic and global monitoring systems compromises adequate surveillance and protection. In this context, remote sensing is emerging as a promising tool to map vegetation biodiversity from space. Early studies proposed exploiting optical reflectance variability, assuming it originates from environmental (and vegetation) heterogeneity. Today, remote sensing provides enhanced information from increasingly diverse sources (e.g., hyperspectral, sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence, radar, lidar, thermal) and with better resolutions, opening unprecedented opportunities to monitor vegetation diversity (and other taxa indirectly). However, this growing field still needs to consolidate, develop and identify sound and reliable approaches to provide game-changing information at global and regional scales. Furthermore, we still need to clarify outstanding questions like what biodiversity facets (e.g., taxonomic, functional, phylogenetic) and scales (alpha, beta, gamma) remote sensing can capture and how sensors’ resolution and spectral configuration limit these capabilities. This session aims to gather the latest methods, approaches, and metrics to map biological diversity from different or multiple instruments, platforms, and spatial scales, confront these with ground data, and showcase their application in ecological studies. The session particularly encourages studies that analyze the underlying processes connecting remote sensing imagery with biodiversity, answer fundamental questions, or jointly exploit multiple datasets. The overarching goal of this session is to bring together researchers interested in developing this new field, initiating exchanges and steering interactions that could boost significant advances in the future.

The SPATIAL SCALING CHALLENGE is an open exercise where the participants are challenged to down-scale or retrieve relevant biophysical and plant physiological variables (e.g., leaf chlorophyll content, leaf area index, maximal carboxylation rate, non-photochemical quenching) from hyperspectral imaging spectroscopy data. Anyone can join the Spatial Scaling Challenge. Please read further instructions on the Project Log. Participation is open until the 31 of OCTOBER 2022!! Participants will be invited to contribute to submit a manuscript summarizing the SSC results in a peer-reviewed journal. The SPATIAL SCALING CHALLENGE is organized by the Working Group 1 of the SENSECO COST Action CA17143 "Optical synergies for spatiotemporal SENsing of Scalable ECOphysiological traits" (https://www.senseco.eu).

The overall goal of this project is to develop innovative algorithms for the operational mapping of the diversity of European forests using new EO data from the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Copernicus Programme (Sentinel-1, -2). We also investigate the potential of current or future hyperspectral missions such as DESIS (DLR Earth Sensing Imaging Spectrometer). We seek to develop innovative methods for the integration of multiple satellite-based data streams (multispectral, hyperspectral, radar-based) to predict taxonomic and functional diversity; estimate the taxonomic and functional diversity of European forests and their temporal change; study the impact of biodiversity on the functionality and resistance of Forest ecosystems through the integration of biodiversity maps from with ecosystem variables such as those in ICOS and the ESDL are available.