Article
Environmental Sciences
Eduarda M. O. Silveira, Volker C. Radeloff, Sebastian Martinuzzi, Guillermo J. Martinez Pastur, Luis O. Rivera, Natalia Politi, Leonidas Lizarraga, Laura S. Farwell, Paul R. Elsen, Anna M. Pidgeon
Summary: The study highlights the importance of integrating inter-annual and spatial variability data for biodiversity conservation, as areas with high spatial variability may have higher ecological resilience. Regions with low spatial variability and high inter-annual variability require increased management efforts, while areas with high spatial variability may be high priority candidates for protection.
REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT
(2021)
Review
Ecology
Aya Ferchichi, Ali Ben Abbes, Vincent Barra, Imed Riadh Farah
Summary: This paper reviews DL-based spatio-temporal vegetation forecasting using RS data between 2015 and 2021. It presents various DL-based studies, discusses DL algorithms and data sources used in these studies, and highlights open challenges and future directions for DL in vegetation forecasting.
ECOLOGICAL INFORMATICS
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Manel Khlif, Maria Jose Escorihuela, Aicha Chahbi Bellakanji, Giovanni Paolini, Zohra Lili Chabaane
Summary: This study aimed to analyze different drought indices for identifying drought periods and predicting cereal yield in two semi-arid regions, Lleida in Catalonia and Kairouan in Tunisia. Four indices were calculated from remote sensing data: Soil Moisture Anomaly Index (SMAI), Vegetation Anomaly Index (VAI), Evapotranspiration Anomaly Index (EAI), and Inverse Temperature Anomaly Index (ITAI). Correlation studies between indices and wheat/barley yields were conducted, and the EAI and SMAI were found to be key indicators for yield estimation and early estimation, respectively.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Catherine Morfopoulos, Jean-Francois Muller, Trissevgeni Stavrakou, Maite Bauwens, Isabelle De Smedt, Pierre Friedlingstein, Iain Colin Prentice, Pierre Regnier
Summary: This study highlights the rapid protective response of plants to stress through the emission of short-lived biogenic volatile organic compounds, which is reflected as the largest positive HCHO anomalies in remote sensing data, particularly evident in forested regions.
GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Jingyun Guan, Junqiang Yao, Moyan Li, Jianghua Zheng
Summary: Human activities have significant impacts on vegetation dynamics in the ecologically fragile region of Xinjiang, China. Improved NDVI prediction models and residual analysis methods were used to quantitatively assess these impacts, revealing that human activities mainly contribute to the improvement of vegetation, particularly for crops. Factors such as cultivated area, primary industry GDP, and population promote NDVI increase, while factors like animal husbandry population, agricultural population, and livestock number lead to NDVI decrease. The evolutionary trend of anthropogenic impacts on vegetation dynamics in Xinjiang shows a dominance of anti-persistence, with positive impacts continuing to increase, especially for crops, shrubs, grasslands, and alpine vegetation.
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Michiel P. Veldhuis, Ricardo Martinez-Garcia, Vincent Deblauwe, Vasilis Dakos
Summary: This study confirms the theoretical prediction that regular vegetation patterns are associated with critical slowing down and reduced resilience in dryland ecosystems. Using remote sensing data and theoretical simulations, the researchers found that as vegetation patterns transition from gaps to labyrinths to spots, the system shows slower responses, increased temporal autocorrelation, and reduced variance. However, this transition exhibits non-linear behavior, especially when patterns change configuration.
Article
Construction & Building Technology
Terence Darlington Mushore, Onisimo Mutanga, John Odindi
Summary: This study developed an algorithm based on spectral indices to accurately predict land surface temperature (LST) in urban areas. The algorithm showed a strong relationship with LST and performed better than individual indices, providing insight into the impact of city growth on the thermal environment.
SUSTAINABLE CITIES AND SOCIETY
(2022)
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Javier Lopatin
Summary: This study investigates the potential of interannual variations of remotely sensed phenology signals to differentiate plant types in understudied wetland systems. The results suggest that altitude above sea level and certain land surface phenology metrics are significantly related to these interannual variation trends, indicating the usefulness of detailed time-series analysis in wetland characterization.
IEEE GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING LETTERS
(2023)
Article
Agronomy
Meng Liu, Ronglin Tang, Zhao-Liang Li, Sibo Duan, Maofang Gao, Ziwei Xu, Lisheng Song
Summary: This study evaluated the application of one-phase and two-phase trapezoids in separating soil evaporation and vegetation transpiration. The results showed that the two-phase trapezoid integrated with the layered approach had the best consistency with the five partitioning methods.
AGRICULTURAL AND FOREST METEOROLOGY
(2022)
Article
Geography, Physical
Shidong Wang, Maria V. Peppa, Wen Xiao, Sudan B. Maharjan, Sharad P. Joshi, Jon P. Mills
Summary: Climate change increases the risk of glacial lake outburst floods in vulnerable and high mountain regions. A Second-order Attention Network (SoAN) is proposed to automate the segmentation of lakes from satellite imagery, achieving improved results.
ISPRS JOURNAL OF PHOTOGRAMMETRY AND REMOTE SENSING
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Tianxiang Cui, Lei Fan, Philippe Ciais, Rasmus Fensholt, Frederic Frappart, Stephen Sitch, Jerome Chave, Zhongbing Chang, Xiaojun Li, Mengjia Wang, Xiangzhuo Liu, Mingguo Ma, Jean-Pierre Wigneron
Summary: Tropical Asia has experienced a strong greening trend in recent years, but there is still uncertainty regarding changes in carbon stocks. This study evaluates different vegetation proxies to understand the spatio-temporal variations of aboveground live biomass carbon (AGC) in tropical Asia between 2013 and 2019. The results show that certain vegetation proxies are highly correlated with benchmark AGC maps, but all proxies have limitations in tracking AGC dynamics. The study estimates that tropical Asia accumulated carbon in biomass at a rate of +44+39+53 Tg C/yr, with non-forest biomes dominating this small sink.
REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Remote Sensing
Huiren Tian, Pengxin Wang, Kevin Tansey, Dong Han, Jingqi Zhang, Shuyu Zhang, Hongmei Li
Summary: This study developed a novel deep learning framework, ALSTM model, to estimate winter wheat yield using remote sensing and meteorological data in the Guanzhong Plain. The ALSTM model showed improved estimation accuracy, generalization ability, and robustness, with LAI and VTCI identified as important features for yield estimation.
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATION AND GEOINFORMATION
(2021)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Nan Shan, Yongguang Zhang, Jing M. Chen, Weimin Ju, Mirco Migliavacca, Josep Penuelas, Xi Yang, Zhaoying Zhang, Jacob A. Nelson, Yves Goulas
Summary: This study proposed a semi-mechanistic model for estimating terrestrial transpiration by combining solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF) with stomatal conductance (gc) and vapor pressure deficit (VPD), showing improved prediction accuracy and consistency. The model demonstrated that the combination of SIF and VPD can better predict gc and transpiration, with stronger correlations found between gc·VPD0.5 and SIF than other variables. The model's success in estimating transpiration and latent heat flux suggests its potential for improving ecosystem models and enhancing global evapotranspiration estimation.
REMOTE SENSING OF ENVIRONMENT
(2021)
Article
Agriculture, Multidisciplinary
Jingqi Zhang, Huiren Tian, Pengxin Wang, Kevin Tansey, Shuyu Zhang, Hongmei Li
Summary: Crop yield estimation and prediction is a key issue in agricultural management, but challenges exist in estimating crop yields based on remotely sensed data and data-driven methods due to small datasets and limited annotated samples. This study proposed a method that combines generative adversarial networks (GANs) and convolutional neural networks (CNNs) to improve winter wheat yield estimation. The results showed that using GAN to augment the training samples improved the performance of CNN in training, validation, and testing. The method achieved accurate pixel-scale yield estimation for winter wheat in the Guanzhong Plain.
COMPUTERS AND ELECTRONICS IN AGRICULTURE
(2022)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Martina L. Hobi, Laura S. Farwell, Maxim Dubinin, Dmitrij Kolesov, Anna M. Pidgeon, Nicholas C. Coops, Volker C. Radeloff
Summary: Bird species richness is highly dependent on the amount of available energy in an ecosystem, with Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) being a key indicator. The study found that Dynamic Habitat Indices (DHIs) derived from GPP data, along with environmental and climatic variables, can effectively explain annual patterns in bird richness. DHIs have the highest explanatory power for habitat-based guilds, showing their relevance for biodiversity science and conservation planning.
ECOLOGICAL INDICATORS
(2021)
Article
Fisheries
Maria Beatrice Castellani, Lorenzo Lastrucci, Lorenzo Lazzaro, Rossano Bolpagni, Alice Dalla Vecchia, Andrea Coppi
Summary: This study aims to investigate the diversity harbored in plant communities dominated by P. australis in lentic and lotic habitats. Results showed that the dominance of P. australis had a similar effect on overall plant diversity in both habitats, and there was similar richness and abundance of alien species in the two compared habitats. However, the impact of alien species on different components of diversity varied based on their richness or abundance.
KNOWLEDGE AND MANAGEMENT OF AQUATIC ECOSYSTEMS
(2022)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Fabrizio Buldrini, Giovanna Pezzi, Martina Barbero, Alessandro Alessandrini, Lucia Amadei, Sebastiano Andreatta, Nicola Maria Giuseppe Ardenghi, Stefano Armiraglio, Simonetta Bagella, Rossano Bolpagni, Ilaria Bonini, Daniela Bouvet, Lisa Brancaleoni, Giuseppe Brundu, Massimo Buccheri, Gabriella Buffa, Simona Ceschin, Alessandro Chiarucci, Annalena Cogoni, Gianniantonio Domina, Luigi Forte, Riccardo Guarino, Leonardo Gubellini, Laura Guglielmone, Nicole Hofmann, Mauro Iberite, Lorenzo Lastrucci, Fernando Lucchese, Rossella Marcucci, Giacomo Mei, Umberto Mossetti, Juri Nascimbene, Nicodemo Giuseppe Passalacqua, Simonetta Peccenini, Filippo Prosser, Giovanni Repetto, Gabriele Rinaldi, Enrico Romani, Leonardo Rosati, Annalisa Santangelo, Anna Scoppola, Giovanni Spampinato, Adriano Stinca, Maria Tavano, Fulvio Tomsich Caruso, Roberta Vangelisti, Roberto Venanzoni, Marisa Vidali, Thomas Wilhalm, Francesco Zonca, Carla Lambertini
Summary: We analysed the invasion history of two North American macrophytes (Elodea canadensis and E. nuttallii) in Italy, through an accurate census of all available herbarium and field records, dating between 1850 and 2019, and a rich literature collection describing the initial introduction and naturalisation phase that supports the results obtained by the occurrence records. The study found that both species had multiple invasion phases, with Elodea canadensis arriving before 1866 and experiencing two invasion phases, while E. nuttallii arrived in the 1970s and is still ongoing. Botanical gardens and fish farming played a crucial role in the dispersal and naturalisation of both species. The study also highlighted the importance of the River Po as a dispersal barrier and strategic monitoring site to prevent further invasion.
BIOLOGICAL INVASIONS
(2023)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Tommaso Cancellario, Alex Laini, Paul J. Wood, Simone Guareschi
Summary: Biological invasions pose a significant threat to freshwater ecosystems, and understanding the potential distribution of invasive species is crucial for future preparedness. Crustaceans, particularly the Ponto-Caspian invaders Dikerogammarus villosus and Dikerogammarus haemobaphes, have a significant impact on global invasions. This study examined their current and future potential distributions in the European Western Palearctic, highlighting areas at risk and the association between human activities and habitat suitability for these species.
BIOLOGICAL INVASIONS
(2023)
Article
Marine & Freshwater Biology
Maria Beatrice Castellani, Andrea Coppi, Rossano Bolpagni, Daniela Gigante, Lorenzo Lastrucci, Lara Reale, Paolo Villa
Summary: Remote sensing reflectance can be used to derive spectro-functional traits, which are connected to plant light use and morpho-structural features. In this study, the links between haplotype and spectro-functional traits in Phragmites australis populations were evaluated, revealing the impact of meteo-climatic factors on aquatic reeds and the presence of different evolutionary strategies.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Caroline Ganglo, Clara Mendoza-Lera, Alessandro Manfrin, Rossano Bolpagni, Verena Gerstle, Sara Kolbenschlag, Eric Bollinger, Ralf Schulz, Andreas Lorke
Summary: Shallow lentic aquatic ecosystems, such as ponds, play a crucial role in carbon cycling and greenhouse gas emission. Tube-dwelling benthic invertebrates, like chironomids, may have a significant impact on the carbon budget of these ecosystems, but their role is still poorly understood.
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Erica Matta, Mariano Bresciani, Giulio Tellina, Karin Schenk, Philipp Bauer, Fabian Von Trentini, Nils Ruther, Alena Bartosova
Summary: This study investigates the impact of vegetation indices, bio-physical parameters, meteorological variables, and hydrological data on the spatial and temporal variability of water quality in the Banja reservoir in Albania. The analysis is conducted using Sentinel-2 and Landsat 8/9 images to derive water quality parameters and vegetation properties. The results show significant positive correlations between water turbidity and hydrological parameters, and negative correlations between water turbidity and vegetation descriptors. The integration of earth observation data enhances the analysis of specific time periods or precipitation events.
Article
Ecology
Alex Laini, Thibault Datry, Benjamin Wong Blonder
Summary: Many methods for estimating functional diversity of biological communities rely on measuring geometrical properties of n-dimensional hypervolumes in a trait space. However, current methods are limited in their ability to detect functional diversity patterns due to overlap of multiple hypervolumes. In this study, we propose a new approach based on occupancy rate to estimate functional diversity from a set of hypervolumes, and we introduce a permutation test to identify differences in occupancy rates between two sets of hypervolumes. We demonstrate the utility of our approach with two examples on aquatic macroinvertebrates.
FUNCTIONAL ECOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Limnology
Laura Argus, Tiit Kutser, Birgot Paavel, Martin Ligi, Claudia Giardino, Mariano Bresciani, Tiia Moeller
Summary: Accurate determination of water depth and benthic macroalgae composition in coastal and inland water bodies is important. Conventional methods for benthic habitat mapping are expensive and time-consuming, while remote sensing methods provide additional information about hard-to-reach areas. The study aims to test the suitability of Sentinel-2 imagery in mapping benthic types and estimating bathymetry in optically complex marine and lake waters.
JOURNAL OF LIMNOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Andrea Pellegrino, Alice Fabbretto, Mariano Bresciani, Thainara Munhoz Alexandre de Lima, Federica Braga, Nima Pahlevan, Vittorio Ernesto Brando, Susanne Kratzer, Marco Gianinetto, Claudia Giardino
Summary: This study aims to evaluate the accuracy of PRISMA's standard Level 2d (L2d) products for water bodies in the visible and near-infrared spectral regions. An analytical comparison with in situ water reflectance data from AERONET-OC was performed, and the results showed significant levels of uncertainty in the L2d reflectance products, especially in oligotrophic waters. It suggests the need to develop and test water-specific atmospheric correction algorithms to fully exploit PRISMA data.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Thainara Munhoz Alexandre de Lima, Claudia Giardino, Mariano Bresciani, Claudio Clemente Faria Barbosa, Alice Fabbretto, Andrea Pellegrino, Felipe Nincao Begliomini
Summary: The aim of this study is to test the accuracy of state-of-the-art water constituent retrieval algorithms for phycocyanin (PC) and chlorophyll-a (chl-a) concentrations in Brazilian reservoirs. The algorithms were tested on PRISMA and Sentinel-3 OLCI data, with a focus on PC mapping using OLCI data for its high revisit time. The results suggest that applying the Semi-Analytical algorithm to PRISMA and OLCI data can accurately detect PC in Brazilian reservoirs.
Article
Zoology
A. Laini, R. Stubbington, A. J. Beermann, G. Burgazzi, T. Datry, P. Viaroli, M. Wilkes, V. M. A. Zizka, M. Sacco, F. Leese
Summary: Most metacommunity studies rely solely on morphological identification, which limits the characterization of metacommunities. In this study, morphology and DNA metabarcoding were combined to improve the characterization of an insect metacommunity. The results showed that the joint effect of environmental filtering and dispersal was more important than their individual effects in shaping metacommunity structure. Mixed-level and OTU-level identification were more effective than family and haplotype in characterizing the drivers of metacommunity structure.
EUROPEAN ZOOLOGICAL JOURNAL
(2023)
Article
Plant Sciences
Cristina Ribaudo, Sara Benelli, Rossano Bolpagni, Romane Darul, Marco Bartoli
Summary: In eutrophic freshwater ecosystems, the replacement of submerged macrophytes by phytoplankton or free-floating plants leads to the accumulation and degassing of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere. The relationship between primary producers' growth forms, hydrological connectivity, and GHGs concentration is poorly understood. Through monitoring 18 freshwater wetlands, it was found that the colonization of free-floating plants was linked to hypoxic conditions and dissolved methane accumulation. Carbon dioxide accumulation was particularly evident in hydrologically connected wetlands with nitrate pollution. Considering vegetation growth forms and hydrological connectivity as major drivers of GHGs accumulation and evasion rates is important for future studies.
Article
Ecology
Maria Beatrice Castellani, Alice Dalla Vecchia, Rossano Bolpagni, Roberto Natale, Erika Piaser, Lorenzo Lastrucci, Andrea Coppi, Paolo Villa
Summary: The study compared the genetic and phenotypic diversity of two water macrophytes, Phragmites australis and Nuphar lutea, and found differences in their genetic structure and leaf functional traits. Phragmites australis showed consistent genetic structure with other populations, while Nuphar lutea exhibited more complex genetic structure due to genetic isolation and mixed mating system. Both species displayed high variability in leaf functional traits, indicating high phenotypic plasticity. The differentiation of Phragmites australis was predominantly influenced by directional selection, while Nuphar lutea showed a mixed influence of stabilizing and directional selection. This joint analysis provides insights into the relative roles of genetic drift and natural selection in the diversification of phenotypic traits in habitats dominated by Phragmites australis and Nuphar lutea.
FRESHWATER BIOLOGY
(2023)
Article
Ecology
Gemma Burgazzi, Alex Laini, Pierluigi Viaroli, Stefano Fenoglio, Verena C. Schreiner, Ralf B. Schaefer, Alberto Doretto
Summary: This study fills the gap in understanding the drivers of biomass in macroinvertebrate communities by assessing the relationship between environmental variables at different scales and macroinvertebrate biomass in different mountain regions. The results show that basin-scale variables have the greatest impact on biomass variability, with mean cumulated daily precipitation being the main driver. These findings offer insights into the vulnerability of ecosystems to climate change.
JOURNAL OF BIOGEOGRAPHY
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Electrical & Electronic
Erika Piaser, Andrea Berton, Rossano Bolpagni, Michele Caccia, Maria Beatrice Castellani, Andrea Coppi, Alice Dalla Vecchia, Francesca Gallivanone, Giovanna Sona, Paolo Villa
Summary: Advancements in airborne imaging spectroscopy have enabled the use of lightweight drones for detailed vegetation assessment. However, surface reflectance anisotropy and view-illumination effects may bias the extracted spectra and derived spectral indices, particularly in aquatic vegetation. This study empirically investigated the impact of illumination conditions and angular configurations on radiometric variability of centimetric resolution drone data over different aquatic plant species. The findings showed a decrement in reflectance under diffuse light conditions and a marked angular reflectance anisotropy in high absorption spectral regions for aquatic vegetation.
IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN APPLIED EARTH OBSERVATIONS AND REMOTE SENSING
(2023)