An article by Michael Wulder of the Canadian Forest Service and colleagues surveys the use of high spatial resolution data obtained by airborne and satellite-based sensors. Such data are now widely used for assessing forest structure and can be used to estimate quantities such as biomass. Susan Ustin of the University of California, Davis, and co-authors then describe the uses of airborne and space borne imaging spectrometers, cutting-edge systems that measure hundreds of narrow spectral bands and can provide insights into ecosystem functioning and properties.
In the third article in the Special Section, Warren B. Cohen of the US Forest Service and Samuel Goward of the University of Maryland summarize the large contributions of the Landsat program to ecology over more than three decades. An outgrowth of the US space program, Landsat faces an uncertain future. Next, Steven W. Running of the University of Montana and his associates describe how data now being generated by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer sensor of the Earth Observing System are used to generate global assessments of gross and net primary production (the creation of plant matter by photosynthesis) several times each month. Such assessments, widely distributed, can track environmental degradation and might even be used to make decisions about when to move grazing animals.
Robert W. Treuhaft of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and co-authors then provide an account of a very new technique currently being evaluated: i
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Contact: Donna Royston
droyston@aibs.org
202-628-1500 x261
American Institute of Biological Sciences
1-Jun-2004