{
  "abstract": "Plant functional traits, particularly leaf mass per area (LMA), are critical links between changes in plant diversity and the biosphere’s exchanges of energy and matter. Despite their importance, a predictive understanding of the biosphere is hampered by spatial and temporal gaps in trait observations. Here, we introduce iLMA, a novel remote sensing index capable of capturing LMA spatial variation across major terrestrial biomes (R2 = 0.63, RMSE = 13.6%) and LMA temporal changes, enabling a continuous mapping of LMA even at high resolution (30 m). Our global mapping revealed LMA decreased 10-11% between 1985 to 2024, largely driven by increasing temperatures, while LMA change in some regions (e.g. tropical South America) is also heavily influenced by land-use change. Due to LMA connections with carbon metabolism in ecosystems, a global decrease in LMA suggests possible, and largely unexplored, consequences to the terrestrial carbon sink and climate feedbacks.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 10,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Cesar Hinojo Hinojo"
    },
    {
      "name": "Lei Song"
    },
    {
      "name": "Amy Frazier"
    },
    {
      "name": "Efthymios I. Nikolopoulos"
    },
    {
      "name": "Haruko Wainwright"
    },
    {
      "name": "Cory Merow"
    },
    {
      "name": "Michael L. Goulden"
    },
    {
      "name": "Nicola Falco"
    },
    {
      "name": "Diogo S. A. Araujo"
    },
    {
      "name": "Julia Maria Chacón Labella"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/0arjabx58qcsq.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.31219/osf.io/zs4fp_v2",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "0arjabx58qcsq",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://osf.io/zs4fp_v2/",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "bepress",
      "Biodiversity"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Ecology and Evolutionary Biology"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Environmental Indicators and Impact Assessment"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Environmental Monitoring"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Environmental Sciences"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Life Sciences"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Physical Sciences and Mathematics"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2303|Remote Sensing in Agriculture"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7213517894",
  "pdf_url": "https://osf.io/zs4fp/download",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-17",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/0arjabx58qcsq.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:26:57Z",
      "native_id": "zs4fp",
      "source": "osf",
      "url": "https://osf.io/zs4fp_v2/"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "bepress:Ecology and Evolutionary Biology",
      "subfield": "ecology"
    },
    {
      "field": "biology",
      "origin": "bepress:Ecology and Evolutionary Biology",
      "subfield": "evolutionary-biology"
    },
    {
      "field": "earth",
      "origin": "bepress:Environmental Monitoring",
      "subfield": "environmental-science"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Remotely sensed evidence of long-term global shifts in leaf mass per area",
  "title_text": "Remotely sensed evidence of long-term global shifts in leaf mass per area",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:26:57Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/0arjabx58qcsq",
  "venue": "OSF Preprints",
  "versions": []
}