Mapping canopy traits over Québec using airborne and spaceborne imaging spectroscopy.

The advent of new spaceborne imaging spectrometers offers new opportunities for ecologists to map vegetation traits at global scales. However, to date most imaging spectroscopy studies exploiting satellite spectrometers have been constrained to the landscape scale. In this paper we present a new method to map vegetation traits at the landscape scale and upscale trait maps to the continental level, using historical spaceborne imaging spectroscopy (Hyperion) to derive estimates of leaf mass per area, nitrogen, and carbon concentrations of forests in Québec, Canada.

Evolutionary history explains foliar spectral differences between arbuscular and ectomycorrhizal plant species.

Leaf spectra are integrated foliar phenotypes that capture a range of traits and can provide insight into ecological processes. Leaf traits, and therefore leaf spectra, may reflect belowground processes such as mycorrhizal associations. However, evidence for the relationship between leaf traits and mycorrhizal association is mixed, and few studies account for shared evolutionary history.

Predicting leaf traits across functional groups using reflectance spectroscopy.

Plant ecologists use functional traits to describe how plants respond to and influence their environment. Reflectance spectroscopy can provide rapid, non-destructive estimates of leaf traits, but it remains unclear whether general trait-spectra models can yield accurate estimates across functional groups and ecosystems. We measured leaf spectra and 22 structural and chemical traits for nearly 2000 samples from 103 species.

Spatial response resampling (SR): Accounting for the spatial point spread function in hyperspectral image resampling.

With the increased availability of hyperspectral imaging (HSI) data at various scales (0.03-30 m), the role of simulation is becoming increasingly important in data analysis and applications. There are few commercially available tools to spatially degrade imagery based on the spatial response of a coarser resolution sensor.

Landscape-scale concordance between local ecological knowledge for tropical wild species and remote sensing of land cover.

Monitoring the status of species is crucial for biodiversity conservation and sustainable resource management in tropical forests, but conventional in situ monitoring methods are impractical over large scales. Scientists have resorted to two potentially complementary approaches: local ecological knowledge (LEK) and remote sensing. To gauge the potential of combining LEK and remote sensing for assessing species status at landscape scales, a large-scale assessment of the reliability of both measures is critical but hampered by the lack of ground-level data.