The interaction of processes that have traditionally fallen within the ecologic, geologic, and hydrologic sciences are increasingly acknowledged as being inextricably intertwined. The development of Earth System Science departments and expansion of work that explicitly examines the Critical Zone are examples of efforts to promote the exchange of ideas and integrate disciplinary frameworks across these fields. Ecologic, geologic, and hydrologic studies all have a history of utilizing remote sensing data to expand the understanding of point level observations to the scale of landscapes. This provides an opportunity for integrating concepts across disciplines into a spatial context to facilitate new insights into ecosystem and biogeochemical processes. In my work I have utilized high spatial resolution remote sensing datasets to integrate observed vegetation patterns with ground-based and modeling work in order to develop an understanding of how geomorphic and biogeochemical processes act to organize ecosystems.
Results/Conclusions
Here I draw from multiple studies to explore how spatial data can help us to uncover processes that both organize ecosystems and allow us to better understand their development. High resolution lidar data provides insights into geomorphic processes that control the underlying template of ecosystems. Imaging spectroscopy data capture information on foliar biochemical composition at the scale of individuals across these landscapes. Together, these datasets give us unprecedented insight into the geography of ecosystems and processes that drive their development.