Twenty-first century remote sensing technologies are revolutionizing the study of tropical forests

The fields of tropical biology and conservation face significant transformations due to rapid technological developments in remote sensing. Other fields (e.g. Archeology) are experiencing this momentous change even more rapidly. In this article, we review some of the challenges that the fields of tr...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Biotropica 2017-09, Vol.49 (5), p.604-619
Main Authors: Sanchez-Azofeifa, Arturo, Guzmán, Jose Antonio, Campos, Carlos A., Castro, Saulo, Garcia-Millan, Virginia, Nightingale, Joanne, Rankine, Cassidy
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
21st century
Archaeology
Biology
Conservation
Detection
Ecological monitoring
Ecology
Fields
Forests
hyperspectral remote sensing
LiDAR
multispectral remote sensing
near‐surface remote sensing
Remote sensing
Remote sensors
REVIEW
Spatial discrimination
Transformations
Tropical climate
Tropical forests
Wireless sensor networks
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Summary:The fields of tropical biology and conservation face significant transformations due to rapid technological developments in remote sensing. Other fields (e.g. Archeology) are experiencing this momentous change even more rapidly. In this article, we review some of the challenges that the fields of tropical biology and conservation face during the first quarter of the twenty-first century from the perspective of various remote sensing technologies, and discuss the transformations that they may bring to these disciplines. In addition, we review two emerging technologies driving paradigm changes in the nexus of ecology, remote sensing, and analytics: near-surface remote sensing and Wireless Sensor Networks. These two technologies, arising from the eScience paradigm, offer unique opportunities to integrate field observations at hyper-temporal and spatial resolutions that were not possible as recently as 5 years ago.
ISSN:0006-3606
1744-7429
DOI:10.1111/btp.12454