Remotely sensed spatial heterogeneity as an exploratory tool for taxonomic and functional diversity study
Assessing biodiversity from field-based data is difficult for a number of practical reasons: (i) establishing the total
number of sampling units to be investigated and the sampling design (e.g. systematic, random, stratified) can be
difficult; (ii) the choice of the sampling design can affect the results; and (iii) defining the focal population of
interest can be challenging. Satellite remote sensing is one of the most cost-effective and comprehensive approaches
to identify biodiversity hotspots and predict changes in species composition. This is because, in contrast
to field-based methods, it allows for complete spatial coverages of the Earth's surface under study over a short
period of time. Furthermore, satellite remote sensing provides repeated measures, thus making it possible to
study temporal changes in biodiversity. While taxonomic diversity measures have long been established, problems
arising from abundance related measures have not been yet disentangled. Moreover, little has been done
to account for functional diversity besides taxonomic diversity measures. The aim of this manuscript is to
propose robust measures of remotely sensed heterogeneity to perform exploratory analysis for the detection of
hotspots of taxonomic and functional diversity of plant species.