How does hyperspectral improve our understanding of climate-biodiversity interactions?

Life on Earth is dependent on light. Photosynthetic organisms, such as plants, use sunlight and water to assimilate carbon from atmospheric carbon dioxide and release oxygen. Light usage can be understood as a plant trait that varies according to its genotype and phenotype. Most hyperspectral sensors measure the reflected light in hundreds to thousands of bands, each signal being an individual optical trait. By collecting those data from terrestrial platforms, aircrafts, or satellites, we can explore in a non-destructive manner how plant diversity responds to climate change and extreme events and contributes to ecosystem resistance and resilience to such disturbances.