Remote Sensing of Biodiversity – Current Challenges and Future Prospects

Biodiversity science is entering a new era. Years of effort by the scientific community are culminating in recent and upcoming launches of satellite systems specifically designed for global biodiversity assessment and monitoring. In addition, the Kunming-Montréal Global Biodiversity Framework, the most ambitious international agreement addressing biodiversity loss, is pushing for biodiversity and ecosystem protection, restoration and better management to occupy more prominent positions on global political agendas. It is clear by now that we need remote sensing to assess the status and monitor biodiversity globally and repeatedly. However, global biodiversity observatory systems need to combine remote sensing with ground observations to develop reliable and intepretable products. In this talk, I will try to summarize the current status and potential future directions of remote sensing of biodiversity across spatial, temporal and biological scales. The focus of my talk will be plant spectroscopy, which is based on the physical and physiological connections between plants and light. I will discuss the ways in which integrating ecological theory with measurements across spatial and temporal scales allow for a better understanding of what aspects of biodiversity global satellite systems are capable of detecting on the ground. I will also provide examples of remote sensing studies investigating the diversity of taxonomic groups other than plants through their connection with particular vegetation characteristics. Future advances in the field of remote sensing of biodiversity will benefit more than ever from diverse teams, global cooperation and collaborations across disciplines, including biology, geography, computer science and robotics. Now is the time to do our best work to help prevent and mitigate the negative consequences of biodiversity loss.