83
© The Author(s) 2020
J. Cavender-Bares et al. (eds.), Remote Sensing of Plant Biodiversity,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33157-3_4
Chapter 4
The Laegeren Site: An Augmented Forest
Laboratory
Combining 3-D Reconstruction and Radiative
Transfer Models for Trait-Based Assessment of
Functional Diversity
Felix Morsdorf, Fabian D. Schneider, Carla Gullien, Daniel Kükenbrink,
Reik Leiterer, and Michael E. Schaepman
4.1 Introduction
Global change is altering biodiversity in an unprecedented manner (Parmesan and
Yohe 2003), and its impact on humankind may be large (Chapin III et al. 2000;
Isbell et al. 2017). Forests are of special relevance because they hold most of the
terrestrial biomass (Bar-On et al. 2018), are a hot spot of biodiversity (Wilson et al.
2012), and are subject to climate- and human-induced changes (Gardner 2010;
Hansen et al. 2013). To monitor and potentially mitigate changes in biodiversity,
Pereira et al. (2013) defined a set of essential biodiversity variables (EBVs), which
should be comprehensive, concise, and standardized. Originally, most of these
EBVs were to be measured in situ within ecosystems, but because forest plots are
particularly scarce in the regions where change is happening the fastest (Chave et al.
2014), remote sensing (RS) has been acknowledged as a vital component to contribute to the aims of EBVs in the form of RS-enabled EBVs (RS-EBVs; Pettorelli et al.
2016; O’Connor et al. 2015). More specifically, RS technologies such as imaging
spectroscopy and laser scanning have been attributed with the potential to play an
important role in providing the necessary information for RS-EBVs, be it at regional,
national, or global scale (Skidmore et al. 2015; Jetz et al. 2016).
Still in its early stage is the design and use of the EBV framework to include and
combine RS-EBVs with in-situ measurements. In-situ measurements are often
based on point measurements of individual species, whereas RS-EBVs are areaF. Morsdorf (*) · F. D. Schneider · C. Gullien · D. Kükenbrink · R. Leiterer
· M. E. Schaepman
Remote Sensing Laboratories, Department of Geography, University of Zurich,
Zurich, Switzerland
e-mail: felix.morsdorf@geo.uzh.ch
© The Author(s) 2020
J. Cavender-Bares et al. (eds.), Remote Sensing of Plant Biodiversity,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33157-3_4
Chapter 4
The Laegeren Site: An Augmented Forest
Laboratory
Combining 3-D Reconstruction and Radiative
Transfer Models for Trait-Based Assessment of
Functional Diversity
Felix Morsdorf, Fabian D. Schneider, Carla Gullien, Daniel Kükenbrink,
Reik Leiterer, and Michael E. Schaepman
4.1 Introduction
Global change is altering biodiversity in an unprecedented manner (Parmesan and
Yohe 2003), and its impact on humankind may be large (Chapin III et al. 2000;
Isbell et al. 2017). Forests are of special relevance because they hold most of the
terrestrial biomass (Bar-On et al. 2018), are a hot spot of biodiversity (Wilson et al.
2012), and are subject to climate- and human-induced changes (Gardner 2010;
Hansen et al. 2013). To monitor and potentially mitigate changes in biodiversity,
Pereira et al. (2013) defined a set of essential biodiversity variables (EBVs), which
should be comprehensive, concise, and standardized. Originally, most of these
EBVs were to be measured in situ within ecosystems, but because forest plots are
particularly scarce in the regions where change is happening the fastest (Chave et al.
2014), remote sensing (RS) has been acknowledged as a vital component to contribute to the aims of EBVs in the form of RS-enabled EBVs (RS-EBVs; Pettorelli et al.
2016; O’Connor et al. 2015). More specifically, RS technologies such as imaging
spectroscopy and laser scanning have been attributed with the potential to play an
important role in providing the necessary information for RS-EBVs, be it at regional,
national, or global scale (Skidmore et al. 2015; Jetz et al. 2016).
Still in its early stage is the design and use of the EBV framework to include and
combine RS-EBVs with in-situ measurements. In-situ measurements are often
based on point measurements of individual species, whereas RS-EBVs are areaF. Morsdorf (*) · F. D. Schneider · C. Gullien · D. Kükenbrink · R. Leiterer
· M. E. Schaepman
Remote Sensing Laboratories, Department of Geography, University of Zurich,
Zurich, Switzerland
e-mail: felix.morsdorf@geo.uzh.ch