Foreword
I was pleased and honored when Jonathan M. Hanes asked me to write the
foreword for this book. As a researcher who studies the interactions of plant life
cycle events (phenology) with land surface and atmospheric processes, including
the impacts of changing climates on the timing of these seasonal transitions, I have
long appreciated the unique and developing role that satellite-derived measures
play in biophysical research efforts. Simply stated, there is currently no other
means to gather diverse large-scale vegetation information systematically across
the Earth’s surface, without employing remote sensing.
One of the most important developments in recent years has been the growing
realization that integration of diverse perspectives and paradigms from many
traditional fields will be essential to address the complex challenges posed by
the expected worldwide impacts of global climate change on ecosystems.
Increasingly, individual researchers must broadly cross-train, and research teams
need quick access to diverse multidisciplinary techniques, in order to conduct
cutting-edge global change research studies. The expert authors assembled for this
book have collectively done an excellent job in their chapters of comprehensively
addressing the major techniques used to measure and analyze land and ocean
vegetation activity and biophysical processes at global scales. Such information
will prove to be an invaluable part of advancing future global change and
large-scale ecological research. Thus, I will look forward to adding this volume to
my personal technical reference library, and expect to consult it often in the years
ahead. I presume that many of my colleagues will want to do the same.
June 2013
Mark D. Schwartz
v
I was pleased and honored when Jonathan M. Hanes asked me to write the
foreword for this book. As a researcher who studies the interactions of plant life
cycle events (phenology) with land surface and atmospheric processes, including
the impacts of changing climates on the timing of these seasonal transitions, I have
long appreciated the unique and developing role that satellite-derived measures
play in biophysical research efforts. Simply stated, there is currently no other
means to gather diverse large-scale vegetation information systematically across
the Earth’s surface, without employing remote sensing.
One of the most important developments in recent years has been the growing
realization that integration of diverse perspectives and paradigms from many
traditional fields will be essential to address the complex challenges posed by
the expected worldwide impacts of global climate change on ecosystems.
Increasingly, individual researchers must broadly cross-train, and research teams
need quick access to diverse multidisciplinary techniques, in order to conduct
cutting-edge global change research studies. The expert authors assembled for this
book have collectively done an excellent job in their chapters of comprehensively
addressing the major techniques used to measure and analyze land and ocean
vegetation activity and biophysical processes at global scales. Such information
will prove to be an invaluable part of advancing future global change and
large-scale ecological research. Thus, I will look forward to adding this volume to
my personal technical reference library, and expect to consult it often in the years
ahead. I presume that many of my colleagues will want to do the same.
June 2013
Mark D. Schwartz
v