Global environmental change is forcing plant communities to adapt to entirely novel sets of abiotic and biotic conditions, including, in many cases, an increased prevalence of extreme events. One of the core tasks of plant physiological ecology is to understand how these abiotic and biotic stresses shape the function of individual plants and whole ecosystems. However, monitoring changes in plant function with direct physiological measurements is challenging over large spatial scales. Reflectance spectroscopy bears the promise of capturing an integrated snapshot of plant function, which may allow researchers to make rapid assessments of plant health for purposes ranging from ecological prediction to crop improvement. Remote sensing of reflectance spectra could extend these benefits over large areas, linking plant stress to ecosystem function at the landscape scale and enabling assessment of plant function over unprecedented scales. In this symposium, we bring together researchers who bridge plant physiological ecology with remote sensing to work towards an emerging synthesis in the evaluation of plant stress using reflectance spectroscopy. The symposium aims to highlight both the methodological challenges and the unique insights provided by using remote sensing as a tool for understanding the physiology of plant stress. Speakers will examine both abiotic stresses, such as drought and light stress, and biotic stresses, such as plant herbivores and pathogens, and consider how spectroscopy will allow us to monitor the effects of these stresses as they are exacerbated by global environmental change.