英国爱丁堡大学Walshaw, Charlotte V.，Gray, Andrew和Colesie, Claudia课题组取得一项新突破。他们最新的研究报道了南极光合作用生命的卫星衍生基线。相关论文于2024年8月6日发表在《自然—地球科学》杂志上。
研究人员展示了横跨整个南极大陆、海洋群岛和南纬60度以南岛屿的，陆地和冰冻圈栖息地的一张10m分辨率的光合作用生物地图。研究涵盖了2017-2023年Sentinel-2遥感影像和光谱指数，对无冰区的陆生绿色植被(维管植物、苔藓植物、绿藻)和地衣以及沿海积雪区冰冻圈绿雪藻进行了探测。
探测到的植被总面积为44.2km2，其中一半以上位于南设得兰群岛，总共占分析中包括的总无冰面积的0.12%。由于方法学的限制，深色地衣和蓝藻垫被排除在研究之外。该植被图改善了南极洲植被的地理空间数据，并为未来的保护规划和大规模生物地理评估提供了工具。
据悉，南极洲陆地植被群落的非常稀疏，这对在大陆尺度遥感上绘制其分布情况带来了挑战。目前，没有南极植被的全大陆基线记录，大尺度的面积估计仍未量化。随着南极各地的环境变化，当地的植被分布现在发生了明显的变化，并得到了进一步的预测，因此建立一个记录这些变化的基线至关重要。
附：英文原文
Title: A satellite-derived baseline of photosynthetic life across Antarctica
Author: Walshaw, Charlotte V., Gray, Andrew, Fretwell, Peter T., Convey, Peter, Davey, Matthew P., Johnson, Joanne S., Colesie, Claudia
Issue&Volume: 2024-08-06
Abstract: Terrestrial vegetation communities across Antarctica are characteristically sparse, presenting a challenge for mapping their occurrence using remote sensing at the continent scale. At present there is no continent-wide baseline record of Antarctic vegetation, and large-scale area estimates remain unquantified. With local vegetation distribution shifts now apparent and further predicted in response to environmental change across Antarctica, it is critical to establish a baseline to document these changes. Here we present a 10 m-resolution map of photosynthetic life in terrestrial and cryospheric habitats across the entire Antarctic continent, maritime archipelagos and islands south of 60°S. Using Sentinel-2 imagery (2017–2023) and spectral indices, we detected terrestrial green vegetation (vascular plants, bryophytes, green algae) and lichens across ice-free areas, and cryospheric green snow algae across coastal snowpacks. The detected vegetation occupies a total area of 44.2km2, with over half contained in the South Shetland Islands, altogether contributing just 0.12% of the total ice-free area included in the analysis. Due to methodological constraints, dark-coloured lichens and cyanobacterial mats were excluded from the study. This vegetation map improves the geospatial data available for vegetation across Antarctica, and provides a tool for future conservation planning and large-scale biogeographic assessments.
DOI: 10.1038/s41561-024-01492-4
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-024-01492-4