v
Foreword
At last, here it is. For some time now, the world has needed a text providing both a
new theoretical foundation and practical guidance on how to approach the challenge
of biodiversity decline in the Anthropocene. This is a global challenge demanding
global approaches to understand its scope and implications. Until recently, we have
simply lacked the tools to do so. We are now entering an era in which we can realistically begin to understand and monitor the multidimensional phenomenon of biodiversity at a planetary scale. This era builds upon three centuries of scientific
research on biodiversity at site to landscape levels, augmented over the past two
decades by airborne research platforms carrying spectrometers, lidars, and radars
for larger-scale observations. Emerging international networks of fine- grain in-situ
biodiversity observations complemented by space-based sensors offering coarsergrain imagery—but global coverage—of ecosystem composition, function, and
structure together provide the information necessary to monitor and track change in
biodiversity globally.
This book is a road map on how to observe and interpret terrestrial biodiversity
across scales through plants—primary producers and the foundation of the trophic
pyramid. It honors the fact that biodiversity exists across different dimensions,
including both phylogenetic and functional. Then, it relates these aspects of biodiversity to another dimension, the spectral diversity captured by remote sensing
instruments operating at scales from leaf to canopy to biome. The biodiversity community has needed a Rosetta Stone to translate between the language of satellite
remote sensing and its resulting spectral diversity and the languages of those exploring the phylogenetic diversity and functional trait diversity of life on Earth. By
assembling the vital translation, this volume has globalized our ability to track biodiversity state and change. Thus, a global problem meets a key component of the
global solution.
The editors have cleverly built the book in three parts. Part 1 addresses the theory
behind the remote sensing of terrestrial plant biodiversity: why spectral diversity
relates to plant functional traits and phylogenetic diversity. Starting with first principles, it connects plant biochemistry, physiology, and macroecology to remotely
Foreword
At last, here it is. For some time now, the world has needed a text providing both a
new theoretical foundation and practical guidance on how to approach the challenge
of biodiversity decline in the Anthropocene. This is a global challenge demanding
global approaches to understand its scope and implications. Until recently, we have
simply lacked the tools to do so. We are now entering an era in which we can realistically begin to understand and monitor the multidimensional phenomenon of biodiversity at a planetary scale. This era builds upon three centuries of scientific
research on biodiversity at site to landscape levels, augmented over the past two
decades by airborne research platforms carrying spectrometers, lidars, and radars
for larger-scale observations. Emerging international networks of fine- grain in-situ
biodiversity observations complemented by space-based sensors offering coarsergrain imagery—but global coverage—of ecosystem composition, function, and
structure together provide the information necessary to monitor and track change in
biodiversity globally.
This book is a road map on how to observe and interpret terrestrial biodiversity
across scales through plants—primary producers and the foundation of the trophic
pyramid. It honors the fact that biodiversity exists across different dimensions,
including both phylogenetic and functional. Then, it relates these aspects of biodiversity to another dimension, the spectral diversity captured by remote sensing
instruments operating at scales from leaf to canopy to biome. The biodiversity community has needed a Rosetta Stone to translate between the language of satellite
remote sensing and its resulting spectral diversity and the languages of those exploring the phylogenetic diversity and functional trait diversity of life on Earth. By
assembling the vital translation, this volume has globalized our ability to track biodiversity state and change. Thus, a global problem meets a key component of the
global solution.
The editors have cleverly built the book in three parts. Part 1 addresses the theory
behind the remote sensing of terrestrial plant biodiversity: why spectral diversity
relates to plant functional traits and phylogenetic diversity. Starting with first principles, it connects plant biochemistry, physiology, and macroecology to remotely