Remotely‐Sensed Canopy Nitrogen Correlates with Nitrous Oxide Emissions in a Lowland Tropical Rainforest

摘要

Tropical forests exhibit substantial heterogeneity in plant traits that may con-tribute to spatial patterning of key soil processes, such as carbon storage andgreenhouse gas emissions. Here, we show that local variation in canopy foliarnitrogen, mapped by remote- sensing image spectroscopy, correlates with patternsof soil N 2 O emission from a lowland tropical rainforest on the Osa Peninsula ofCosta Rica. These data point to connections between canopy and soil processesthat have largely been overlooked as a driver of denitrification. Defining relation-ships between remotely- sensed plant traits and soil processes offers the chanceto map these processes at large scales, potentially increasing our ability to predictemissions in heterogeneous landscapes.