Plant beta-diversity across biomes captured by imaging spectroscopy

Spaceborne spectroscopy is a promising tool to monitor vegetation globally. Here, the authors combine airborne spectroscopy and field-based vegetation data to demonstrate that spectral imagery from upcoming satellite missions can be used to capture changes in plant species composition across biomes. Monitoring the rapid and extensive changes in plant species distributions occurring worldwide requires large-scale, continuous and repeated biodiversity assessments. Imaging spectrometers are at the core of novel spaceborne sensor fleets designed for this task, but the degree to which they can capture plant species composition and diversity across ecosystems has yet to be determined. Here we use imaging spectroscopy and vegetation data collected by the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) to show that at the landscape level, spectral beta-diversity-calculated directly from spectral images-captures changes in plant species composition across all major biomes in the United States ranging from arctic tundra to tropical forests. At the local level, however, the relationship between spectral alpha- and plant alpha-diversity was positive only at sites with high canopy density and large plant-to-pixel size. Our study demonstrates that changes in plant species composition and diversity can be effectively and reliably assessed with imaging spectroscopy across terrestrial ecosystems at the beta-diversity scale-the spatial scale of spaceborne missions-paving the way for close-to-real-time biodiversity monitoring at the planetary level.

Automated summary

The authors combine airborne spectroscopy and field-based vegetation data to demonstrate that spectral imagery from upcoming satellite missions can be used to capture changes in plant species composition across biomes. They use imaging spectroscopy and vegetation data collected by NEON to show that spectral beta-diversity can capture changes in plant species composition across major biomes in the United States. The study highlights the potential of imaging spectroscopy for assessing plant species composition and diversity across terrestrial ecosystems.