Remote Sensing and Modelling of Terrestrial Ecosystems Functioning

Dear Colleagues,

Plants are vital components of nearly all terrestrial ecosystems (i.e., forests, grasslands, and croplands). Water and carbon exchanges between plants and the atmosphere are two fundamental traits of vegetation functioning [i.e., evapotranspiration (ET) and photosynthesis or gross primary productivity (GPP)].

ET comprises plant transpiration, soil evaporation and evaporation of intercepted precipitation and provides the primary linkage between energy and hydrologic flux in the ecosystem. It quantifies the water loss from the Earth surface to the atmosphere. ET, as the atmosphere’s water source, controls basin surface water and affects regional rainfall patterns. GPP controls some of the crucial functions in the ecosystem, such as respiration and growth. It demonstrates the efficiency of the exchange of carbon dioxide in the surface-atmosphere continuum and sustains the food web by providing the total carbohydrate matter and, therefore, plays an essential role in human life.

Remote sensing provides a synoptic view of the plants from space. It contains rich information on the canopy spectra (reflectance/radiance) at a large spatio-temporal scale. The observed spectra carry valuable information about the biophysical and biochemical properties of the leaf composition and the canopy structure that can be employed for remote sensing of ET and GPP across ecosystems by means of statistical and physical models. The availability of a wide range of active and passive sensors, covering various portions of the electromagnetic spectrum  (from optical to thermal to microwave) at different resolutions, has accelerated the local to global monitoring of vegetation. Moreover, several algorithms have been developed to extract sun-induced fluorescence (SIF) from remote sensing, which is the radiation in the far-red wavelength range between 650 and 800 nm emitted by plants. SIF is closely connected to the carbon assimilation of vegetation.

This special issue aims at studies covering various vegetation functioning estimations in forests, grasslands, and croplands using remote sensing observations. Topics may cover a broad range of approaches (from simple statistical approach to more comprehensive physical modelling), scales (from laboratory experiments, point estimates, watershed and ecosystem levels), and time-span (from single data and image to longer time-series analysis). Articles may address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

• Vegetation biophysical and biochemical properties (e.g., LAI, Cab) estimations
• Satellite ET monitoring
• Satellite GPP estimation
• Combined use of optical, thermal, and SIF data for ET and GPP estimation
• ET and GPP products evaluation and accuracy assessment
• Heatwave and drought analysis based on ET and GPP estimates
• Radiative transfer modelling
• Vegetation index analysis
• Land surface temperature estimation
• Surface energy balance approach
• Use of drone and airborne data for ET and GPP estimation
• Bias correction of ET and GPP estimates in dry episodes

Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere.

Dr. Bagher Bayat
Dr. Rahul Raj
Prof. Dr. Peiqi Yang
Dr. Tian Hu
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-anonymized peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Remote Sensing is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.