Integrating Hyperspectral Imaging, Plant Functional Diversity, and Soil-Lithology to Uncover Mountainscape Disturbance Dynamics Induced by Landsliding

The global biodiversity crisis has emphasized the unique contribution of functional diversity to ecosystem function, stability, and resilience. In this regard, the increasing availability of remotely sensed data together with the development of new sensors and approaches has the potential to improve our ability to quantify and monitor ecosystem traits and functions at unprecedented spatial, temporal, and spectral scales. In particular, air- and spaceborne hyperspectral data are making possible the measurement of plant-level functional traits to investigate ecosystem function and functional diversity in novel ways. In this review, we posit that these developments, together with similar ones on soils and lithologies, can help us understand relationships between functional diversity, ecosystem processes, and landsliding, and more broadly the disturbance dynamics of mountainscapes. Acknowledging the challenges associated with mountainous regions, this review aims to (1) synthesize broad established methods to retrieve functional traits from remotely sensed data, (2) summarize approaches to characterize functional diversity derived from remotely sensed functional traits, (3) review work addressing functional diversity, ecosystem functioning, and dynamics of mountainscapes, and (4) elaborate on how these methods and approaches can help develop a needed “ecosystem-centered” view of landslides. This view acknowledges that ecosystem diversity influences both slope resistance and susceptibility to failure and landslide recovery, that interactions between ecosystem and geomorphic processes drive the dynamics of mountainscapes mediated by landslides at multiple scales, and that the variability in landslide size represents a source of diversity while also playing a fundamental role in landslide recovery and landscape memory.