Peer-Reviewed Publication
Ecol Lett2026;29(9):e70452.September 1, 2026Journal Article
Remote Spectral Detection of Canopy Functional Dimensions Varying Within and Across Forest Types.
Fengqi Wu1,2,3, Shuwen Liu4, Constantin M Zohner5,6, Philip A Townsend4, Thomas W Crowther7, Josep Peñuelas8,9, Daryl Yang10, Nan Yang1,2,3, Tingting Dong1,2,3, Weiying Xu1,2,3, Zhihui Wang11, Xiaojuan Liu1,2,3, Guanhua Dai12, Jinlong Dong13,14, Sandra M Durán15, Fabian D Schneider16,17, Yuan Zeng3,18, J Hans C Cornelissen19, Jens Kattge20,21, Jin Wu22,23, Gregory P Asner24, Jeannine Cavender-Bares25,26, Peter B Reich27,28,29, Zhengbing Yan1,2,3
1State Key Laboratory of Forage Breeding-by-Design and Utilization, Key Laboratory of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
2China National Botanical Garden, Beijing, China.
3University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
4Department of Forest & Wildlife Ecology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, USA.
5Institute for Future Initiatives, University of Tokyo (UTokyo), Tokyo, Japan.
6BRANCH Institute, Zug, Switzerland.
7Institute of Integrative Biology, ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology), Zurich, Switzerland.
8CSIC, Global Ecology Unit CREAP-CSIC-UABellaterra, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
9CREAF, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
10Environmental Sciences Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA.
11Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing and Geographical Information System, Guangdong Open Laboratory of Geospatial Information Technology and Application, Guangzhou Institute of Geography, Guangdong Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China.
12Research Station of Changbai Mountain Forest Ecosystems, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Antu, China.
13Yunnan Key Laboratory of Forest Ecosystem Stability and Global Change, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Mengla, Yunnan, China.
14National Forest Ecosystem Research Station at Xishuangbanna, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Menglun, Yunnan, China.
15Department of Forest and Rangeland Stewardship, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA.
16Section for Ecoinformatics & Biodiversity, Department of Biology, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
17Pioneer Center for Landscape Research in Sustainable Agricultural Futures (Land-CRAFT), Aarhus University, Aarhus C, Denmark.
18State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China.
19Systems Ecology, Amsterdam Institute for Life and Environment (A-LIFE), Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
20Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany.
21iDiv - German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany.
22School of Biological Sciences and Institute for Climate and Carbon Neutrality, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China.
23State Key Laboratory of Agrobiotechnology (CUHK), Hong Kong, China.
24Center for Global Discovery and Conservation Science, Arizona State University, Hilo, Hawaii, USA.
25Department of Ecology, Evolution and Behavior, University of Minnesota, St Paul, Minnesota, USA.
26Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
27Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University, Penrith, New South Wales, Australia.
28Department of Forest Resources, University of Minnesota, St Paul, Minnesota, USA.
29Institute for Global Change Biology, and School for the Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA.
Abstract
Global trait axes reveal overarching dimensions of plant functional variation. However, how these dimensions are spatially organized within and across forest types remains unclear. We combined drone-based full-range imaging spectroscopy with crown-level measurements of 16 physiological, morphological and biochemical traits across temperate, subtropical and tropical forests in China to enable spati…
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