Plant diversity monitoring from above: linking spectral to plant diversity

Remote sensing has been acknowledged as a valuable tool for providing an efficient and cost-effective method to assess plant and ecosystem diversity. Indeed, the current advancements in both airborne and spaceborne remote sensing offer great and unprecedented opportunities for environmental observation, providing a massive quantity of readily available data. Increasing evidence suggests that remotely sensed spectral diversity (SD) is linked to plant diversity, holding promise for monitoring applications. However, studies testing such a relationship reported conflicting findings, calling for a thorough investigation of the key factors (i.e., metrics applied, habitat type, scale, and temporal effects) and conditions under which such a relationship exists.

The present research aims to unravel the complex relationship between SD and biodiversity by considering multiple key factors. This research spans landscape-scale analysis using national databases and data from spaceborne, non-commercial sensors, while also utilising UAV and vegetation plot data to directly link SD with biodiversity at the community scale. Since previous studies often relied on limited datasets and considered only one scale and a limited amount of diversity metrics, the outcomes of this research contribute to shedding light on overcoming such limitations, offering an additional perspective on how SD can be effectively integrated into biodiversity monitoring.