Remote Sensing of Leaf Trait, Canopy Structure, Ecosystem Function and Services
A Special Issue of Remote Sensing (ISSN 2072-4292) belonging to the section "Remote Sensing in Agriculture and Vegetation".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 February 2027 | Viewed by 382
Editors
Interests: solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (SIF); hyperspectral remote sensing; proximal sensing; ecosystem modeling and forecasting; ecosystem structure and function; spectroscopy and spectral analysis; plant phenomics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: hyperspectral remote sensing; plant phenomics; crop disease remote sensing monitoring; intelligent sensing of field crops; precision agriculture
Interests: UAV remote sensing; machine learning; phenology extraction; data fusion; crop models
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: UAV remote sensing; deep learning for remote sensing image analysis; crop monitoring; global change ecology
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence, cloud computing, storage solutions and computational capabilities has significantly enhanced the cross-scale application of remote sensing technology, expanding its use from local and regional to global scales. In light of pressing food security challenges, worsening ecological conditions and increasing occurrences of extreme weather events, remote sensing research has gradually transitioned from traditional approaches, such as vegetation indices and static mapping, toward more innovative methodologies. These include imaging and non-imaging spectroscopy, LiDAR, thermal infrared analysis, solar-induced chlorophyll fluorescence, multi-source data fusion, physics-constrained machine learning, collaborations with open flux and trait databases as well as uncertainty quantification and the establishment of reproducible workflows. This evolution has led to the emergence of dynamic interdisciplinary research areas, such as plant phenomics, foundational models and data in remote sensing and near-surface carbon sink remote sensing, all aimed at addressing production and practical needs across various sectors.
This Special Issue, entitled "Remote Sensing of Leaf Trait, Canopy Structure, Ecosystem Function and Services," seeks to organize the research around the continuum of "leaf traits–canopy structure–ecosystem function–ecosystem services," focusing on common scientific issues in agricultural systems and natural vegetation systems and conducting studies on remote sensing quantitative inversion, cross-scale modeling and application transformation. The core novelty of this topic lies in integrating leaf chemical and morphological traits; three-dimensional canopy structure; phenology and physiological processes; carbon, nitrogen and water fluxes; ecosystem functions; biodiversity and service value assessments into a single framework. This approach highlights the continuity of scales from leaf to canopy and from canopy to ecosystem. We welcome original research, reviews, methodological papers, data papers and interdisciplinary case studies on cross-scale, interdisciplinary and new applications and comparative studies, as well as submissions of innovative technical methods for single-scale applications. The scope of this Special Issue includes, but is not limited to, the following topics:
Imaging and non-imaging spectroscopy-driven quantitative retrieval of leaf/canopy traits;
LiDAR and three-dimensional canopy structure and function of vegetation;
Scaling from leaf to canopy to ecosystem
Phenology, stress and dynamic function;
Carbon, nitrogen and water flux and function remote sensing;
Biodiversity, ecosystem (multi-) functions and services;
Precision agriculture and high-throughput phenotyping;
Uncertainty, development of datasets and reproducibility;
Geospatial foundation models and data applications.
Dr. Xiaoyan Kang
Dr. Mi Yang
Dr. Yahui Guo
Dr. Jinbang Peng
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.
Keywords
- leaf traits
- canopy structure
- ecosystem functions
- ecosystem services
- spectroscopy
- LiDAR
- plant phenomics
- cross-scale modeling
- geospatial foundation models
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