Recent advances in the estimation of photosynthetic stress for terrestrial ecosystems services related to Carbon uptake

M.F. GARBULSKY; I. FILELLA; J. PEÑUELAS

Remote sensing of global ecosystem services

CRC Press (Taylor and Francis)

Año: 2013; p. 39 - 61

Many ecosystem services, such as climate regulation and food production, are deeply dependent on the carbon uptake by the vegetation. An accurate continuous quantification of the role of terrestrial ecosystems in the carbon cycle sinks constitutes a key issue in the face of ongoing disturbance and climate change and their effects on the provision of ecosystem services. Recent advances in remote sensing techniques are increasingly giving new insights into the estimation of carbon uptake by terrestrial vegetation, particularly in the estimation of gross primary productivity (GPP), the ecosystem expression of leaf level photosynthesis. This chapter reviews and synthesizes recent advances on the different approaches to remotely estimate Light Use Efficiency of terrestrial vegetation (LUE), a key parameter to estimate carbon uptake, be means of current and future data. We present the state of the art of different ways to estimate LUE and the recent advances of the available remote sensing technologies and data. The temporal and spatial variability of LUE by leaf pigments cycles using the Photochemical Reflectance Index (PRI) and the chlorophyll fluorescence remote sensing techniques are the main avenues that shed light on the provision of new accurate estimations of carbon uptake by terrestrial vegetation.