503
© 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_19
Chapter 19
Prospects and Pitfalls for Spectroscopic
Remote Sensing of Biodiversity
at the Global Scale
David Schimel, Philip A. Townsend, and Ryan Pavlick
19.1 Introduction
Understanding how Earth’s ecosystems will respond to drivers of change requires
quantifying the composition and diversity of functions (e.g., growth, nutrient uptake,
decomposition) of the taxa present in those ecosystems. Biodiversity is critical to
maintenance of ecosystem health, which plays a critical role in global biogeochemical cycling. In turn, human well-being is dependent on ecosystems for services
ranging from food and fiber to water and air quality.
Biodiversity can change in time and space as environmental conditions change
(e.g., seasonally or due to natural disturbances, human activities, or climate variability) and is changing rapidly due to climate change and human activities. Even as
it does, we have remarkably little information on biodiversity worldwide, with
major spatial gaps in global coverage and very limited ability to detect changes over
time (Jetz et al. 2016). Ground-based repeat data are needed to track changes in
biodiversity and function but are particularly sparse. Our lack of understanding of
species and functional diversity in both time and space leads to great uncertainty in
predicting impacts of future changes in terrestrial and aquatic coastal marine ecosystems, making this an urgent target for improved understanding.
Functional biodiversity in terrestrial and aquatic coastal marine ecosystems is
controlled by environmental factors, such as soils and climate, as well as by the
evolutionary history and environmental filtering of the species pool. Changes can
occur at a range of temporal scales, due to both ephemeral and catastrophic disturbances as well as to long-term processes (climate change, tectonics). Even among
D. Schimel (*) · R. Pavlick
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, USA
e-mail: David.Schimel@jpl.nasa.gov
P. A. Townsend
Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA
© 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_19
Chapter 19
Prospects and Pitfalls for Spectroscopic
Remote Sensing of Biodiversity
at the Global Scale
David Schimel, Philip A. Townsend, and Ryan Pavlick
19.1 Introduction
Understanding how Earth’s ecosystems will respond to drivers of change requires
quantifying the composition and diversity of functions (e.g., growth, nutrient uptake,
decomposition) of the taxa present in those ecosystems. Biodiversity is critical to
maintenance of ecosystem health, which plays a critical role in global biogeochemical cycling. In turn, human well-being is dependent on ecosystems for services
ranging from food and fiber to water and air quality.
Biodiversity can change in time and space as environmental conditions change
(e.g., seasonally or due to natural disturbances, human activities, or climate variability) and is changing rapidly due to climate change and human activities. Even as
it does, we have remarkably little information on biodiversity worldwide, with
major spatial gaps in global coverage and very limited ability to detect changes over
time (Jetz et al. 2016). Ground-based repeat data are needed to track changes in
biodiversity and function but are particularly sparse. Our lack of understanding of
species and functional diversity in both time and space leads to great uncertainty in
predicting impacts of future changes in terrestrial and aquatic coastal marine ecosystems, making this an urgent target for improved understanding.
Functional biodiversity in terrestrial and aquatic coastal marine ecosystems is
controlled by environmental factors, such as soils and climate, as well as by the
evolutionary history and environmental filtering of the species pool. Changes can
occur at a range of temporal scales, due to both ephemeral and catastrophic disturbances as well as to long-term processes (climate change, tectonics). Even among
D. Schimel (*) · R. Pavlick
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA, USA
e-mail: David.Schimel@jpl.nasa.gov
P. A. Townsend
Department of Forest and Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA