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Abstract Understanding ecosystem processes on our rapidly changing planet requires integration across spatial, temporal, and biological scales. We propose that spectral biology, using tools that enable near‐ to far‐range sensing by capturing the interaction of energy with matter across domains of the electromagnetic spectrum, will increasingly enable ecological insights across scales from cells to continents. Here, we focus on advances using spectroscopy in the visible to short‐wave infrared, chlorophyll fluorescence‐detecting systems, and optical laser scanning (light detection and ranging, LiDAR) to introduce the topic and special feature. Remote sensing using these tools, in conjunction with in situ measurements, can powerfully capture ecological and evolutionary processes in changing environments. These tools are amenable to capturing variation in life processes across biological scales that span physiological, evolutionary, and macroecological hierarchies. We point out key areas of spectral biology with high potential to advance understanding and monitoring of ecological processes across scales—particularly at large spatial extents—in the face of rapid global change. These include: the detection of plant and ecosystem composition, diversity, structure, and function as well as their relationships; detection of the causes and consequences of environmental stress, including disease and drought, for ecosystems; and detection of change through time in ecosystems over large spatial extents to discern variation in and mechanisms underlying their resistance, recovery, and resilience in the face of disturbance. We discuss opportunities for spectral biology to discover previously unseen variation and novel processes and to prepare the field of ecology for novel computational tools on the horizon with vast new capabilities for monitoring the ecology of our changing planet.
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Working across space and time: nonstationarity in ecological research and application
Ecological research increasingly considers integrative relationships among phenomena at broad spatial and temporal domains. However, such large-scale inferences are commonly confounded by changing properties in the processes that govern phenomena (termed nonstationarity), which can violate assumptions underlying standard analytical methods. Changing conditions are funda-mental and pervasive features in ecology, but their influence on ecological inference and prediction increases with larger spatial and temporal domains for a host of factors. Fortunately, tools for identifying and accommodating potentially confounding spatial or temporal trends are available, and new methods are being rapidly developed. Here, we provide guidance for gaining a better understanding of nonstationarity, its causes, and how it can be addressed. Acknowledging and addressing non-constant trends in ecological patterns and processes is key to conducting large-scale research and effectively translating findings to local policies and practices.
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- PAR ID:
- 10302873
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Frontiers in ecology and the environment
- Volume:
- 19
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 1540-9295
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.2298
