Remotely sensed evidence of long-term global shifts in leaf mass per area
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.
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BibTeX
@misc{hinojo2026remotely,
title = {{Remotely sensed evidence of long-term global shifts in leaf mass per area}},
author = {Cesar Hinojo Hinojo and Lei Song and Amy Frazier and Efthymios I. Nikolopoulos and Haruko Wainwright and Cory Merow and Michael L. Goulden and Nicola Falco and Diogo S. A. Araujo and Julia Maria Chacón Labella},
howpublished = {OSF Preprints},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.31219/osf.io/zs4fp_v2},
url = {https://osf.io/zs4fp_v2/},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Remotely sensed evidence of long-term global shifts in leaf mass per area
AU - Cesar Hinojo Hinojo
AU - Lei Song
AU - Amy Frazier
AU - Efthymios I. Nikolopoulos
AU - Haruko Wainwright
AU - Cory Merow
AU - Michael L. Goulden
AU - Nicola Falco
AU - Diogo S. A. Araujo
AU - Julia Maria Chacón Labella
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/17
PB - OSF Preprints
DO - 10.31219/osf.io/zs4fp_v2
UR - https://osf.io/zs4fp_v2/
AB - 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.
ER -