A systematic review on the use of remote sensing technologies in quantifying grasslands ecosystem services

The last decade has seen considerable progress in scientific research on vegetation ecosystem services. While much research has focused on forests and wetlands, grasslands also provide a variety of different provisioning, supporting, cultural, and regulating services. With recent advances in remote sensing technology, there is a possibility that Earth observation data could contribute extensively to research on grassland ecosystem services. This study conducted a systematic review on progress, emerging gaps, and opportunities on the application of remote sensing technologies in quantifying all grassland ecosystem services including those that are related to water. The contribution of biomass, Leaf Area Index (LAI), and Canopy Storage Capacity (CSC) as water-related ecosystem services derived from grasslands was explored. Two hundred and twenty-two peer-reviewed articles from Web of Science, Scopus, and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers were analyzed. About 39% of the studies were conducted in Asia with most of the contributions coming from China while a few studies were from the global south regions such as Southern Africa. Overall, forage provision, climate regulation, and primary production were the most researched grassland ecosystem services in the context of Earth observation data applications. About 39 Earth observation sensors were used in the literature to map grassland ecosystem services and MODIS had the highest utilization frequency. The most widely used vegetation indices for mapping general grassland ecosystem services in literature included the red and near-infrared sections of the electromagnetic spectrum. Remote sensing algorithms used within the retrieved literature include process-based models, machine learning algorithms, and multivariate techniques. For water-related grassland ecosystem services, biomass, CSC, and LAI were the most prominent proxies characterized by remotely sensed data for under-standing evapotranspiration, infiltration, run-off, soil water availability, groundwater restoration and surface water balance. An understanding of such hydrological processes is crucial in providing insights on water redistribution and balance within grassland ecosystems which is important for water management

Inter-Seasonal Estimation of Grass Water Content Indicators Using Multisource Remotely Sensed Data Metrics and the Cloud-Computing Google Earth Engine Platform

Indicators of grass water content (GWC) have a significant impact on eco-hydrological processes such as evapotranspiration and rainfall interception. Several site-specific factors such as seasonal precipitation, temperature, and topographic variations cause soil and ground moisture content variations, which have significant impacts on GWC. Estimating GWC using multisource data may provide robust and accurate predictions, making it a useful tool for plant water quantification and management at various landscape scales. In this study, Sentinel-2 MSI bands, spectral derivatives combined with topographic and climatic variables, were used to estimate leaf area index (LAI), canopy storage capacity (CSC), canopy water content (CWC) and equivalent water thickness (EWT) as indicators of GWC within the communal grasslands in Vulindlela across wet and dry seasons based on single-year data. The results illustrate that the use of combined spectral and topo-climatic variables, coupled with random forest (RF) in the Google Earth Engine (GEE), improved the prediction accuracies of GWC variables across wet and dry seasons. LAI was optimally estimated in the wet season with an RMSE of 0.03 m2 and R2 of 0.83, comparable to the dry season results, which exhibited an RMSE of 0.04 m2 and R2 of 0.90. Similarly, CSC was estimated with high accuracy in the wet season (RMSE = 0.01 mm and R2 = 0.86) when compared to the RMSE of 0.03 mm and R2 of 0.93 obtained in the dry season. Meanwhile, for CWC, the wet season results show an RMSE of 19.42 g/m2 and R2 of 0.76, which were lower than the accuracy of RMSE = 1.35 g/m2 and R2 = 0.87 obtained in the dry season. Finally, EWT was best estimated in the dry season, yielding a model accuracy of RMSE = 2.01 g/m2 and R2 = 0.91 as compared to the wet season (RMSE = 10.75 g/m2 and R2 = 0.65). CSC was best optimally predicted amongst all GWC variables in both seasons. The optimal variables for estimating these GWC variables included the red-edge, near-infrared region (NIR) and short-wave infrared region (SWIR) bands and spectral derivatives, as well as environmental variables such as rainfall and temperature across both seasons. The use of multisource data improved the prediction accuracies for GWC indicators across both seasons. Such information is crucial for rangeland managers in understanding GWC variations across different seasons as well as different ecological gradients

A systematic review on the use of remote sensing technologies in quantifying grasslands ecosystem services

The last decade has seen considerable progress in scientific research on vegetation ecosystem services. While much research has focused on forests and wetlands, grasslands also provide a variety of different provisioning, supporting, cultural, and regulating services. With recent advances in remote sensing technology, there is a possibility that Earth observation data could contribute extensively to research on grassland ecosystem services. This study conducted a systematic review on progress, emerging gaps, and opportunities on the application of remote sensing technologies in quantifying all grassland ecosystem services including those that are related to water. The contribution of biomass, Leaf Area Index (LAI), and Canopy Storage Capacity (CSC) as water-related ecosystem services derived from grasslands was explored. Two hundred and twenty-two peer-reviewed articles from Web of Science, Scopus, and Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers were analyzed. About 39% of the studies were conducted in Asia with most of the contributions coming from China while a few studies were from the global south regions such as Southern Africa. Overall, forage provision, climate regulation, and primary production were the most researched grassland ecosystem services in the context of Earth observation data applications. About 39 Earth observation sensors were used in the literature to map grassland ecosystem services and MODIS had the highest utilization frequency. The most widely used vegetation indices for mapping general grassland ecosystem services in literature included the red and near-infrared sections of the electromagnetic spectrum. Remote sensing algorithms used within the retrieved literature include process-based models, machine learning algorithms, and multivariate techniques. For water-related grassland ecosystem services, biomass, CSC, and LAI were the most prominent proxies characterized by remotely sensed data for understanding evapotranspiration, infiltration, run-off, soil water availability, groundwater restoration and surface water balance. An understanding of such hydrological processes is crucial in providing insights on water redistribution and balance within grassland ecosystems which is important for water management