Addressing climate change

Climate change is causing global shifts in environmental pressures to an extent and at a pace which are impossible to characterize using in situ sampling alone. Remote sensing allows the rapid and repeated characterization of these changes, and of species’ responses, allowing us to map variation in several functional traits. A team from the University of Zurich is developing approaches to describe intra-specific variation using remote sensing, studying variation in remotely-sensed leaf optical properties and connecting it to genetic variation, and also to identify optical signatures of stress responses or stress resilience within a species. A field campaign is planned for next June at the National Nature Reserve of Massane to collect aerial imaging spectroscopy data and to predict the adaptive landscape of the European common beech (Fagus sylvatica) in the face of climate change. This project is a continuation of the LIDAR campaigns, carried out with support from the Medforval network.

For more information: Diane Sorel, National Nature Reserve Massane
diane.sorel@espaces-naturels.fr

13 March 2020