449
© 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_17
Chapter 17
Integrating Biodiversity, Remote Sensing,
and Auxiliary Information for the Study
of Ecosystem Functioning
and Conservation at Large Spatial Scales
Franziska Schrodt, Betsabe de la Barreda Bautista, Christopher Williams,
Doreen S. Boyd, Gabriela Schaepman-Strub, and Maria J. Santos
17.1 Introduction
In the face to accelerated environmental change, being able to assess different
aspects of plant biodiversity, such as those related to, e.g., the productivity or health
of an ecosystem, repeatedly at large spatial scales, is increasingly important. The
recent decade has seen an explosion of in-situ databases necessary to assess such
patterns and processes, often cover large parts of the Earth (e.g., plant functional
traits, phenology (PhenoCam networks)), and integrating this data with remotely
sensed products enables assessment at critical scales which would otherwise be
impossible or extremely costly to do.
However, RS data comes with limitation of their own, and despite of the many
opportunities offered by RS data, certain aspects and scales of biodiversity are
currently not measurable using RS technology alone. Thus, the combination of RS,
in-situ and other auxiliary data, provides the most powerful approach to assessing
ecosystem functioning and conservation at large spatial scales.
F. Schrodt (*) · B. de la Barreda Bautista · D. S. Boyd
School of Geography, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
e-mail: lgzfs@nottingham.ac.uk; lgzbd1@nottingham.ac.uk; doreen.boyd@nottingham.ac.uk
C. Williams
GeoAnalytics and Modelling Directorate, British Geological Survey, Nottingham, UK
e-mail: chrwil@bgs.ac.uk
G. Schaepman-Strub
Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zürich,
Zürich, CH, Switzerland
e-mail: gabriela.schaepman@geo.uzh.ch
M. J. Santos
University Research Priority Program in Global Change and Biodiversity
and Department of Geography, University of Zürich, Zürich, CH, Switzerland
e-mail: maria.j.santos@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_17
Chapter 17
Integrating Biodiversity, Remote Sensing,
and Auxiliary Information for the Study
of Ecosystem Functioning
and Conservation at Large Spatial Scales
Franziska Schrodt, Betsabe de la Barreda Bautista, Christopher Williams,
Doreen S. Boyd, Gabriela Schaepman-Strub, and Maria J. Santos
17.1 Introduction
In the face to accelerated environmental change, being able to assess different
aspects of plant biodiversity, such as those related to, e.g., the productivity or health
of an ecosystem, repeatedly at large spatial scales, is increasingly important. The
recent decade has seen an explosion of in-situ databases necessary to assess such
patterns and processes, often cover large parts of the Earth (e.g., plant functional
traits, phenology (PhenoCam networks)), and integrating this data with remotely
sensed products enables assessment at critical scales which would otherwise be
impossible or extremely costly to do.
However, RS data comes with limitation of their own, and despite of the many
opportunities offered by RS data, certain aspects and scales of biodiversity are
currently not measurable using RS technology alone. Thus, the combination of RS,
in-situ and other auxiliary data, provides the most powerful approach to assessing
ecosystem functioning and conservation at large spatial scales.
F. Schrodt (*) · B. de la Barreda Bautista · D. S. Boyd
School of Geography, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK
e-mail: lgzfs@nottingham.ac.uk; lgzbd1@nottingham.ac.uk; doreen.boyd@nottingham.ac.uk
C. Williams
GeoAnalytics and Modelling Directorate, British Geological Survey, Nottingham, UK
e-mail: chrwil@bgs.ac.uk
G. Schaepman-Strub
Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zürich,
Zürich, CH, Switzerland
e-mail: gabriela.schaepman@geo.uzh.ch
M. J. Santos
University Research Priority Program in Global Change and Biodiversity
and Department of Geography, University of Zürich, Zürich, CH, Switzerland
e-mail: maria.j.santos@geo.uzh.ch