Are remotely sensed traits suitable for ecological analysis? A case study of long-term drought effects on leaf mass per area of wetland vegetation

摘要

Plant and community traits provide valuable insights in ecosystem functioning. Yet, such traits are costly to sample. Existing trait data bases give access to species-specific traits and help to reduce the sampling effort and costs. However, many traits show a high intra-specific plasticity due to the variability of environmental conditions, which is not fully accounted for in the data bases. As an alternative approach, remote sensing is able to retrieve some traits from the spectral reflectance signal of the canopy. Here we test whether remotely sensed traits provide the level of detail to trace the trait plasticity in response to changing environmental conditions.