Search for: All records

Imaging spectroscopy is a powerful tool used to support diverse Earth science and applications objectives, ranging from understanding and mitigating widespread impacts of climate change to management of water at farm‐scale. Community studies, such as those deployed by NASA's Surface Biology and Geology and ESA's Copernicus Hyperspectral Imaging Mission for the Environment, have offered new and tangible insights into user needs that are then incorporated into overall mission planning and design. These technologies and tools will be key to develop and consolidate downstream services for users and resource management, given the current pressures on the environment posed by climate change and population growth. This process has highlighted the degree to which planned mission capabilities are responsive to community needs. In this study, we analyze user requirements belonging to the Italian Copernicus User Forum and to the user pool of NASA's Surface Biology and Geology community for the synergic use of hyperspectral imaging technology, providing a reference for the development of earth observation services and the consolidation of existing ones. In addition, potential cross‐mission coordination is analyzed to highlight key benefits—(a) addressing shared community needs around products requiring more frequent temporal revisit and (b) shared resources and community expertise around algorithm development. This paper discusses the critical role of early engagement with users to establish a community of practice ready to work with high spatial resolution imaging spectroscopy data sets. The main outcome is a guide for the synergetic use of hyperspectral mission and data together with the identification of the main gaps between user needs and satellite capabilities influencing the development of key national and trans‐national downstream services.

 

Key Points The NEON sites were estimated to have large soil organic carbon (SOC) loss in both topsoil and subsoil during 1984–2014 The carbon sequestration potential is limited in well‐developed and near carbon‐saturated soils in managed ecosystems Runoff/erosion and leaching, vertical translocation, and mineral sorption are dominant factors affecting SOC variation at National Ecological Observatory Network sites 

The invasive spotted-wing drosophila,Drosophila suzukii,is a major pest of fruit crops worldwide. Management ofD. suzukiirelies heavily on chemical control in both organic and conventional systems, and there is a need to develop more sustainable management practices. We evaluated the efficacy of three colors of plastic mulches at reducing populations ofD. suzukiiin fall-bearing raspberry and assessed the mulches’ impacts on canopy microclimate factors relevant toD. suzukii. Black, white, and metallic plastic mulches reduced adultD. suzukiipopulations by 42–51% and larval populations by 52–72% compared to the grower standard. The mulches did not change canopy temperature or relative humidity, but metallic mulches increased canopy light intensity compared to the black mulch. Radiance in the visible spectrum (401–680 nm) was higher for the white and metallic mulch plots, but the black mulch plots did not differ from the control. In the UV spectrum (380–400 nm), all three plastic mulches had higher radiance than the control plots. Future studies will determine whether changes in radiance are associated with the observed reduction inD. suzukiipopulations. Plastic mulches are a promising cultural practice for managingD. suzukiisince they can reduce adult and larval populations and could be incorporated into an integrated pest management program in both organic and conventional systems.

 

Reflectance spectra provide integrative measures of plant phenotypes by capturing chemical, morphological, anatomical and architectural trait information. Here, we investigate the linkages between plant spectral variation, and spectral and resource-use complementarity that contribute to ecosystem productivity. In both a forest and prairie grassland diversity experiment, we delineated n -dimensional hypervolumes using wavelength bands of reflectance spectra to test the association between the spectral space occupied by individual plants and their growth, as well as between the spectral space occupied by plant communities and ecosystem productivity. We show that the spectral space occupied by individuals increased with their growth, and the spectral space occupied by plant communities increased with ecosystem productivity. Furthermore, ecosystem productivity was better explained by inter-individual spectral complementarity than by the large spectral space occupied by productive individuals. Our results indicate that spectral hypervolumes of plants can reflect ecological strategies that shape community composition and ecosystem function, and that spectral complementarity can reveal resource-use complementarity.