Document Type
Article
Author ORCID Identifier
Zoe Amie Pierrat https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6726-2406
Troy S. Magney https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9033-0024
Will P. Richardson https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2155-3523
Benjamin R. K. Runkle https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2583-1199
Jen L. Diehl https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3070-6621
Xi Yang https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5095-6735
William Woodgate https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5298-4828
William K. Smith https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5785-6489
Miriam R. Johnston https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7481-8794
Yohanes R. S. Ginting https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1135-0594
Gerbrand Koren https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2275-0713
Loren P. Albert https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9674-6071
Christopher L. Kibler https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3260-0188
Bryn E. Morgan https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4672-3955
Mallory Barnes https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8528-6981
Adriana Uscanga https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0808-9586
Charles Devine https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1651-7613
Mostafa Javadian https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7428-8869
Karem Meza https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4143-4388
Tommaso Julitta https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3870-2572
Giulia Tagliabue https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9725-9956
Matthew P. Dannenberg https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6518-4897
Michal Antala https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1294-9507
Christopher Y. S. Wong https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9608-9916
Andre L. D. Santos https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7320-7649
Koen Hufkens https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5070-8109
Julia K. Marrs https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5908-3582
Atticus E. L. Stovall https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9512-3318
Yujie Liu https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0335-6400
Joshua B. Fisher https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4734-9085
John A. Gamon https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8269-7723
Kerry Cawse-Nicholson https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0510-4066
Journal/Book Title/Conference
New Phytologist
Volume
246
Issue
2
Publisher
Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Publication Date
1-23-2025
Journal Article Version
Version of Record
First Page
419
Last Page
436
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Abstract
A new proliferation of optical instruments that can be attached to towers over or within ecosystems, or ‘proximal’ remote sensing, enables a comprehensive characterization of terrestrial ecosystem structure, function, and fluxes of energy, water, and carbon. Proximal remote sensing can bridge the gap between individual plants, site-level eddy-covariance fluxes, and airborne and spaceborne remote sensing by providing continuous data at a high-spatiotemporal resolution. Here, we review recent advances in proximal remote sensing for improving our mechanistic understanding of plant and ecosystem processes, model development, and validation of current and upcoming satellite missions. We provide current best practices for data availability and metadata for proximal remote sensing: spectral reflectance, solar-induced fluorescence, thermal infrared radiation, microwave backscatter, and LiDAR. Our paper outlines the steps necessary for making these data streams more widespread, accessible, interoperable, and information-rich, enabling us to address key ecological questions unanswerable from space-based observations alone and, ultimately, to demonstrate the feasibility of these technologies to address critical questions in local and global ecology.
Recommended Citation
Pierrat, Z.A., Magney, T.S., Richardson, W.P., Runkle, B.R.K., Diehl, J.L., Yang, X., Woodgate, W., Smith, W.K., Johnston, M.R., Ginting, Y.R.S., Koren, G., Albert, L.P., Kibler, C.L., Morgan, B.E., Barnes, M., Uscanga, A., Devine, C., Javadian, M., Meza, K., Julitta, T., Tagliabue, G., Dannenberg, M.P., Antala, M., Wong, C.Y.S., Santos, A.L.D., Hufkens, K., Marrs, J.K., Stovall, A.E.L., Liu, Y., Fisher, J.B., Gamon, J.A. and Cawse-Nicholson, K. (2025), Proximal remote sensing: an essential tool for bridging the gap between high-resolution ecosystem monitoring and global ecology. New Phytol, 246: 419-436. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.20405