Abstract
The use of remotely sensed imagery for the monitoring of both plant
biodiversity and functional traits in grassland ecosystems has increased
substantially in the last few decades. More recently, uncrewed aerial
vehicles (UAVs) have begun to play an increasingly important role,
providing repeatable very high-resolution data, acting as a bridge
between the decameter satellite imagery and the point scale data
collected on the ground. At the same time, machine learning approaches
are rapidly expanding, adding new analysis and modelling tools to the
plethora of UAV, aircraft and satellite observational data. Here, we
provide a review of remotely sensed monitoring methods for grassland
plant biodiversity and functional traits (Leaf Dry Matter Content, Crude
Protein, Potassium, Phosphorous, Nitrogen and Leaf Area Index) between
2018 and 2024. We highlight the key innovations that have occurred,
sources of error identified, new analysis methods presented and identify
the bottlenecks to and opportunities for further development. We
emphasise the need for (1) the integration of observations across
spatial and temporal scales, (2) a more systematic identification and
examination of sources or error and uncertainty (3) more widespread use
of hyperspectral satellite data and (4) greater focus on the development
of grassland global spectra, species and traits data base, from multi-
and hyper-spectral instruments, to accelerate the creation of more
robust, scalable and generalisable remote sensing based grassland
models.