Application of Remote Sensing for Monitoring of Peatlands

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce that we are now accepting submissions for the upcoming Special Issue of Remote Sensing focused on peatlands.

Peatlands represent one of the most important ecosystems on Earth, mainly because of their huge carbon storage capacity and high vulnerability to climate change. Unfortunately, the majority of peatlands worldwide have been degraded and they are still under high anthropogenic pressure. On the other hand, increasing efforts are being devoted to the restoration of degraded peatlands and the recovery of their hydrology, biodiversity and climate-related functions. Non-degraded peatlands serve many environmental functions, not limited to their roles as sinks for atmospheric carbon and as huge natural pools of organic carbon. Peatlands regulate local hydrology, influence water quality and meso- and macro-climates, but they also play a major role in the conservation of biodiversity. However, due to climate change and the increasing occurrence and severity of heatwaves and droughts, these regulatory functions of peatlands are endangered.

Remote sensing (RS) is a powerful tool which can be used to monitor the regulatory functions of peatlands. Ground-, UAV-, airborne- or spaceborne-based RS approaches can be integrated with GHG flux towers and other ground-based monitoring datasets, while new remote sensing signals (e.g., sun-induced fluorescence), new retrieval methods, sensors and modelling approaches can be applied in order to make the monitoring of peatland status (e.g., rate of degradation, early stress indicators), water table dynamics, vegetation phenology and their productivity more efficient and complementary.

We are interested in high-quality submissions that use remote sensing to study the effects of weather and climate extremes and/or anthropogenic impact on any aspect of peatland functioning. Studies integrating remote sensing with ground-based monitoring data and modelling are particularly welcome.

We look forward to receiving your manuscript.

Sincerely,

Prof. Dr. Radoslaw Juszczak
Guest Editor

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 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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. 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.