Exploring Emerging Climatic Changes and Responses in Plant Sciences Using Remote Sensing

Dear Colleagues,

Because of climate change, plants’ structures, compositions, and functions may be significantly impacted and altered. Increased risks of extreme weather events and long-term climatic disruptions pose direct threats to plant phenology, productivity, biogeochemical cycles, and biome conversation, which could endanger critical ecosystems, crop production, and economic activity. Remote sensing, which involves the use of satellite technology to measure and monitor Earth’s surface structure and dynamics, has emerged as a powerful tool for detecting landscape patterns and shifts. With satellites such as NASA MODIS, VIIRS, USGS Landsat, ESA Sentinel, and others, more than 50 petabytes of public information of Earth’s landscape have been collected over the past 30 years. These high-resolution aerial images provide tremendous opportunities to identify and evaluate the challenges and consequences of climate change on plants.

This Special Issue aims to incorporate applications of remote sensing to analyze variations in plant properties that respond to climate change. By using visible and near-infrared (VNIR) images, it is possible to measure canopy cover, loss, and dynamics. Thermal infrared images and active remote sensing techniques such as LiDAR and radar can provide additional insights into photosynthesis and plant mortality. Long-term remote sensing records offer continuous measurements to monitor changes in plant systems and biomes at both regional and global scales. Therefore, we invite papers on the following related topics:

• The utilization of high-resolution images to estimate changes in plant traits and functions.
• The use of remote sensing to evaluate alterations in the composition, phenology, and structure of critical plant ecosystems under extreme weather events or water and temperature stresses.
• Advanced application of remote sensing in crop monitoring and urban plant management regarding climatic impacts.

In addition, we welcome review articles discussing the progress of using remote sensing in plant sciences concerning climate change. We also invite works that apply advanced hyperspectral images, the Google Earth Engine, and machine learning algorithms to improve the acquisition of remotely sensed information about plant stress.

Prof. Dr. Wenjian Hua
Dr. Yan Jiang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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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-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Plants 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.

• remote sensing
• climate change
• optical, near-infrared, thermal, and microwave images
• plant function, structure, and composition
• sensing for crops, urban plants
• water stress
• heat stress
• hyperspectral imaging
• Google Earth Engine
• machine learning for plants monitoring and pattern recognition