Fig. 4: Spectral alpha-diversity predicts plant alpha-diversity.

Correlations between predicted and measured a plant species richness (n = 589, r² = 0.66, b = 1.03, t₅₈₇ = 33.80, P < 0.001), b Shannon index (n = 589, r² = 0.57, b = 1.03, t₅₈₇ = 27.72, P < 0.001), and c phylogenetic diversity (n = 588, r² = 0.40, b = 1.04, t₅₈₆ = 19.87, P < 0.001) per plot calculated from mixed effects models including spectral alpha-diversity, vegetation type (forest, grassland, shrubland), mean leaf area index, latitude, elevation, precipitation and temperature. As phylogenetic diversity measure we used phylogenetic species evenness (PSE). The black line shows the overall model fit, one standard deviation is shaded in gray, the dashed line is the 1:1-line, gray lines are the linear regressions per site, dot colors represent vegetation types. Significance was assessed using two-sided t-tests, no adjustments for multiple comparisons were made; for mixed effects model statistics see Supplementary Tables 4–6.