Space
Underground Fungi From Space, Scientists Detect
Wayne Parker
First Posted: May 05, 2016 07:18 AM EDT
Much like how an individual's skin would indicate for a healthy diet, the colored satellite images of forests in the ForestGEO (Smithsonian's Forest Global Earth Observatory) would also show if forests have a healthy status.
According to an article on Science Newsline, data regarding how trees access nutrients based on its relationships with 2 different types of underground fungi can now be detectable from space. This truly makes it possible for scientists to assess the ecosystem productivity and responses to environmental change on huge scales.
"Every tree species has a distinct spectral signal, a kind of measurable aura. Now we can tell who their underground friends are, an indicator of their nutrient status, from the sky," said Sean McMahon, who is a temperate program coordinator of the ForestGEO network.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and UCLA scientist, Dr Joshua Fisher, had developed a method of detecting and mapping the relations between fungi and forests as cited on Science Daily.
Dr Fisher and his colleagues compared Thematic Mapper radiance data from Landsat satellites with traditional data regarding fungal associations of diverse species from 130,000 individual trees. The trees are in continuing forest-monitoring plots at the Smithsonian's Conservation Biology Institute in Virginia, Wabikon in Wisconsin's at the Tyson Research Center in Missouri, the Lilly-Dickey Woods in Indiana, and Chequamegon-Nicolet Forest.
"We discovered that groups of tree species associating with one type of fungi were spectrally distinct from groups of species associating with other types of fungi," Dr Fisher explained.
The spectral data let scientists determine whether trees formed associations with ectomycorrhizal fungi or arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Ectomycorrhizal fungi or ECM only grow on and around root cells, while arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi or AM penetrate the cells. Scientists knew which fungi would associate with which tree species. However, mapping manually every single tree across landscapes or continents is utterly impossible.
Trees that are associated with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi generally have higher leaf phosphorus content. AM-associated trees are likely to leaf out earlier and fast decomposing leaf litter, which results in a much quicker nutrient cycling. ECM-associated trees, on the other hand, are typically characterized by slower nutrient cycling. ECM trees are more common in boreal forests, while AM-associated trees in the tropics. Temperate forests, however, have a combination of both.
In the 30-year-old ForestGEO network, researchers have immensely accumulated a huge sum of knowledge from forests across the globe. ForestGEO, aside from studying the relationship between fungi and tree species, also map as well as measure over 6 million individual trees at 5-year intervals. . ForestGEO, in addition, take data on seasonal changes as well as measure leaf spectral properties with the use of canopy cranes and drones, and LiDAR-equipped airplanes.
The researchers will certainly expand the analysis to more of the sixty-three research plots in the Smithsonian's ForestGEO network-where scientists employ the same techniques- which makes the global comparisons very much necessary to deeply understand climate change and pollution as well as deforestation and reforestation.
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TagsForestGEO, underground fungi, Smithsonian's Forest Global Earth Observatory, Ecosystem, Thematic Mapper ©2024 ScienceWorldReport.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission. The window to the world of science news.
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First Posted: May 05, 2016 07:18 AM EDT
Much like how an individual's skin would indicate for a healthy diet, the colored satellite images of forests in the ForestGEO (Smithsonian's Forest Global Earth Observatory) would also show if forests have a healthy status.
According to an article on Science Newsline, data regarding how trees access nutrients based on its relationships with 2 different types of underground fungi can now be detectable from space. This truly makes it possible for scientists to assess the ecosystem productivity and responses to environmental change on huge scales.
"Every tree species has a distinct spectral signal, a kind of measurable aura. Now we can tell who their underground friends are, an indicator of their nutrient status, from the sky," said Sean McMahon, who is a temperate program coordinator of the ForestGEO network.
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and UCLA scientist, Dr Joshua Fisher, had developed a method of detecting and mapping the relations between fungi and forests as cited on Science Daily.
Dr Fisher and his colleagues compared Thematic Mapper radiance data from Landsat satellites with traditional data regarding fungal associations of diverse species from 130,000 individual trees. The trees are in continuing forest-monitoring plots at the Smithsonian's Conservation Biology Institute in Virginia, Wabikon in Wisconsin's at the Tyson Research Center in Missouri, the Lilly-Dickey Woods in Indiana, and Chequamegon-Nicolet Forest.
"We discovered that groups of tree species associating with one type of fungi were spectrally distinct from groups of species associating with other types of fungi," Dr Fisher explained.
The spectral data let scientists determine whether trees formed associations with ectomycorrhizal fungi or arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Ectomycorrhizal fungi or ECM only grow on and around root cells, while arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi or AM penetrate the cells. Scientists knew which fungi would associate with which tree species. However, mapping manually every single tree across landscapes or continents is utterly impossible.
Trees that are associated with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi generally have higher leaf phosphorus content. AM-associated trees are likely to leaf out earlier and fast decomposing leaf litter, which results in a much quicker nutrient cycling. ECM-associated trees, on the other hand, are typically characterized by slower nutrient cycling. ECM trees are more common in boreal forests, while AM-associated trees in the tropics. Temperate forests, however, have a combination of both.
In the 30-year-old ForestGEO network, researchers have immensely accumulated a huge sum of knowledge from forests across the globe. ForestGEO, aside from studying the relationship between fungi and tree species, also map as well as measure over 6 million individual trees at 5-year intervals. . ForestGEO, in addition, take data on seasonal changes as well as measure leaf spectral properties with the use of canopy cranes and drones, and LiDAR-equipped airplanes.
The researchers will certainly expand the analysis to more of the sixty-three research plots in the Smithsonian's ForestGEO network-where scientists employ the same techniques- which makes the global comparisons very much necessary to deeply understand climate change and pollution as well as deforestation and reforestation.
See Now: NASA's Juno Spacecraft's Rendezvous With Jupiter's Mammoth Cyclone