Dr Holly Croft

School of Biosciences

UKRI Future Leaders Fellow

h.croft@sheffield.ac.uk

D210, Alfred Denny Building

Full contact details

Dr Holly Croft
School of Biosciences
D210
Alfred Denny Building
Western Bank
Sheffield
S10 2TN

Profile

UKRI Future Leaders Fellow, University of Sheffield, UK (2020-)
MSCA Independent Research Fellow, University of Sheffield, UK (2018-2020)
Research Associate, University of Toronto, Canada (2011-2018)
Research Assistant, University of Basel, Switzerland (2010-2011)
PhD Physical Geography, University of Exeter, UK (2010)
MSc Environmental Monitoring, Modeling and Reconstruction, University of Manchester (2006)
BSc (Hons) Physical Geography, University of Manchester, UK (2002)

Research interests

I am an ecological remote sensing scientist with interests in agricultural, forested and Arctic terrestrial ecosystems. My research is focused on the use of remotely sensed data in the measurement and modelling of biophysical and ecological variables that influence vegetation productivity, carbon exchange and nutrient use, along with the effects of disturbance on ecosystem structure and function. I use remote sensing data, acquired from a range of platforms from UAVs to satellites, ground-based field experiments and novel analytical methods to improve our understanding of vegetated systems for research and management applications.

Current research projects

RESOLVE: ‘Remote sensing of photosynthetic traits for high latitude plant productivity modelling’ Funding Agency: Horizon 2020 MSCA

The arctic is predicted to warm faster and to a greater extent than anywhere on earth. Environmental drivers such as increased temperature and atmospheric CO2 concentration, are resulting in unprecedented changes to the structure, function and/or species composition of arctic and boreal vegetation. Recent developments in remote sensing methods and satellite technologies and have opened up exciting new opportunities to use chlorophyll fluorescence and modeled leaf biochemical estimates as indicators of plant physiological status, in order to address biome-scale questions on climate-induced changes in vegetation productivity. This research will contribute to: improving our understanding of the spatially-dependent dominant environmental drivers affecting ABB vegetation change at local and regional scales, determining the terrestrial carbon budget for the ABB, and the consequent implications for atmospheric CO2 concentrations.

Publications

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Featured publications

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All publications

Journal articles

Chen B, Li Y, Wang S, Chen J, Zhang X, Liu Z & Croft H (2024) Integrating leaf functional traits improves modelled estimates of carbon and water fluxes at a subtropical evergreen conifer forest. Ecological Modelling, 488, 110593-110593.
Zhang H, Li J, Liu Q, Lin S, Huete A, Liu L, Croft H, Clevers JGPW, Zeng Y, Wang X , Gu C et al (2022) A novel red‐edge spectral index for retrieving the leaf chlorophyll content. Methods in Ecology and Evolution.
Xu M, Liu R, Chen JM, Shang R, Liu Y, Qi L, Croft H, Ju W, Zhang Y, He Y , Qiu F et al (2022) Retrieving global leaf chlorophyll content from MERIS data using a neural network method. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 192, 66-82.
Xu M, Liu R, Chen JM, Liu Y, Wolanin A, Croft H, He L, Shang R, Ju W, Zhang Y , He Y et al (2022) A 21-Year Time Series of Global Leaf Chlorophyll Content Maps From MODIS Imagery. IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, 60, 1-13.
Lu X, Croft H, Chen JM, Luo Y & Ju W (2022) Estimating photosynthetic capacity from optimized Rubisco–chlorophyll relationships among vegetation types and under global change. Environmental Research Letters, 17(1).
Li Y, Ma Q, Chen JM, Croft H, Luo X, Zheng T, Rogers C & Liu J (2021) Fine-scale leaf chlorophyll distribution across a deciduous forest through two-step model inversion from Sentinel-2 data. Remote Sensing of Environment, 264, 112618-112618.
Luo X, Keenan TF, Chen JM, Croft H, Colin Prentice I, Smith NG, Walker AP, Wang H, Wang R, Xu C & Zhang Y (2021) Global variation in the fraction of leaf nitrogen allocated to photosynthesis. Nature Communications, 12.
Rogers C, Chen JM, Croft H, Gonsamo A, Luo X, Bartlett P & Staebler RM (2021) Daily leaf area index from photosynthetically active radiation for long term records of canopy structure and leaf phenology. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 304, 108407.
Rogers CA, Chen JM, Zheng T, Croft H, Gonsamo A, Luo X & Staebler RM (2020) The Response of Spectral Vegetation Indices and Solar‐Induced Fluorescence to Changes in Illumination Intensity and Geometry in the Days Surrounding the 2017 North American Solar Eclipse. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 125(10).
Lu X, Ju W, Li J, Croft H, Chen JM, Luo Y, Yu H & Hu H (2020) Maximum Carboxylation Rate Estimation With Chlorophyll Content as a Proxy of Rubisco Content. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 125(8).
Chou S, Chen B, Chen J, Wang M, Wang S, Croft H & Shi Q (2020) Estimation of leaf photosynthetic capacity from the photochemical reflectance index and leaf pigments. Ecological Indicators, 110, 105867-105867.
Wang S, Li Y, Ju W, Chen B, Chen J, Croft H, Mickler RA & Yang F (2020) Estimation of Leaf Photosynthetic Capacity From Leaf Chlorophyll Content and Leaf Age in a Subtropical Evergreen Coniferous Plantation. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 125(2).
Croft H, Chen JM, Wang R, Mo G, Luo S, Luo X, He L, Gonsamo A, Arabian J, Zhang Y , Simic-Milas A et al (2020) The global distribution of leaf chlorophyll content. Remote Sensing of Environment, 236.
Chen B, Chen JM, Baldocchi DD, Liu Y, Wang S, Zheng T, Black TA & Croft H (2019) Including soil water stress in process-based ecosystem models by scaling down maximum carboxylation rate using accumulated soil water deficit. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 276-277, 107649-107649.
Chan FCC, Altaf Arain M, Khomik M, Brodeur JJ, Peichl M, Restrepo-Coupe N, Thorne R, Beamesderfer E, McKenzie S, Xu B , Croft H et al (2018) Carbon, water and energy exchange dynamics of a young pine plantation forest during the initial fourteen years of growth. Forest Ecology and Management, 410, 12-26.
Luo X, Croft H, Chen JM, Bartlett P, Staebler R & Froelich N (2018) Incorporating leaf chlorophyll content into a two-leaf terrestrial biosphere model for estimating carbon and water fluxes at a forest site. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 248, 156-168.
Luo X, Chen JM, Liu J, Black TA, Croft H, Staebler R, He L, Arain MA, Chen B, Mo G , Gonsamo A et al (2018) Comparison of Big‐Leaf, Two‐Big‐Leaf, and Two‐Leaf Upscaling Schemes for Evapotranspiration Estimation Using Coupled Carbon‐Water Modeling. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 123(1), 207-225.
He L, Chen JM, Croft H, Gonsamo A, Luo X, Liu J, Zheng T, Liu R & Liu Y (2017) Nitrogen Availability Dampens the Positive Impacts of CO2Fertilization on Terrestrial Ecosystem Carbon and Water Cycles. Geophysical Research Letters, 44(22), 11,590-11,600.
Croft H, Chen JM, Luo X, Bartlett P, Chen B & Staebler RM (2017) Leaf chlorophyll content as a proxy for leaf photosynthetic capacity. Global Change Biology, 23(9), 3513-3524.
Dong T, Liu J, Qian B, Jing Q, Croft H, Chen J, Wang J, Huffman T, Shang J & Chen P (2017) Deriving Maximum Light Use Efficiency From Crop Growth Model and Satellite Data to Improve Crop Biomass Estimation. IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, 10(1), 104-117.
Chen B, Arain MA, Chen JM, Croft H, Grant RF, Kurz WA, Bernier P, Guindon L, Price D & Wang Z (2016) Evaluating the impacts of climate variability and cutting and insect defoliation on the historical carbon dynamics of a boreal black spruce forest landscape in eastern Canada. Ecological Modelling, 321, 98-109.
Chen B, Liu J, Chen JM, Croft H, Gonsamo A, He L & Luo X (2016) Assessment of foliage clumping effects on evapotranspiration estimates in forested ecosystems. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 216, 82-92.
He L, Liu J, Chen JM, Croft H, Wang R, Sprintsin M, Zheng T, Ryu Y, Pisek J, Gonsamo A , Deng F et al (2016) Inter- and intra-annual variations of clumping index derived from the MODIS BRDF product. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 44, 53-60.
Froelich N, Croft H, Chen JM, Gonsamo A & Staebler RM (2015) Trends of carbon fluxes and climate over a mixed temperate–boreal transition forest in southern Ontario, Canada. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 211-212, 72-84.
Croft H, Chen JM, Froelich NJ, Chen B & Staebler RM (2015) Seasonal controls of canopy chlorophyll content on forest carbon uptake: Implications for GPP modeling. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 120(8), 1576-1586.
Croft H, Chen JM, Zhang Y, Simic A, Noland TL, Nesbitt N & Arabian J (2015) Evaluating leaf chlorophyll content prediction from multispectral remote sensing data within a physically-based modelling framework. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 102, 85-95.
Gonsamo A, Croft H, Chen JM, Wu C, Froelich N & Staebler RM (2015) Radiation contributed more than temperature to increased decadal autumn and annual carbon uptake of two eastern North America mature forests. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology, 201, 8-16.
He L, Chen JM, Liu J, Mo G, Bélair S, Zheng T, Wang R, Chen B, Croft H, Arain MA & Barr AG (2014) Optimization of water uptake and photosynthetic parameters in an ecosystem model using tower flux data. Ecological Modelling, 294, 94-104.
Croft H, Chen JM & Noland TL (2014) Stand age effects on Boreal forest physiology using a long time-series of satellite data. Forest Ecology and Management, 328, 202-208.
Croft H, Chen JM & Zhang Y (2014) Temporal disparity in leaf chlorophyll content and leaf area index across a growing season in a temperate deciduous forest. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 33, 312-320.
Croft H, Anderson K & Kuhn NJ (2014) Evaluating the influence of surface soil moisture and soil surface roughness on optical directional reflectance factors. European Journal of Soil Science, 65(4), 605-612.
Croft H, Chen JM & Zhang Y (2014) The applicability of empirical vegetation indices for determining leaf chlorophyll content over different leaf and canopy structures. Ecological Complexity, 17, 119-130.
Simic A, Chen JM, Leblanc SG, Dyk A, Croft H & Han T (2014) Testing the Top-Down Model Inversion Method of Estimating Leaf Reflectance Used to Retrieve Vegetation Biochemical Content Within Empirical Approaches. IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, 7(1), 92-104.
Croft H, Chen JM, Zhang Y & Simic A (2013) Modelling leaf chlorophyll content in broadleaf and needle leaf canopies from ground, CASI, Landsat TM 5 and MERIS reflectance data. Remote Sensing of Environment, 133, 128-140.
Croft H, Anderson K, Brazier RE & Kuhn NJ (2013) Modeling fine-scale soil surface structure using geostatistics. Water Resources Research, 49(4), 1858-1870.
Croft H, Kuhn NJ & Anderson K (2012) On the use of remote sensing techniques for monitoring spatio-temporal soil organic carbon dynamics in agricultural systems. CATENA, 94, 64-74.
Croft H, Anderson K & Kuhn NJ (2012) Reflectance anisotropy for measuring soil surface roughness of multiple soil types. CATENA, 93, 87-96.
Anderson K, Croft H, Milton EJ & Kuhn NJ (2012) A simple spectro-goniometer for collection of multiple view angle reflectance factors. Remote Sensing Letters, 3(2), 131-140.
Anderson K & Croft H (2009) Remote sensing of soil surface properties. Progress in Physical Geography: Earth and Environment, 33(4), 457-473.
Croft H, Anderson K & Kuhn NJ (2009) Characterizing soil surface roughness using a combined structural and spectral approach. European Journal of Soil Science, 60(3), 431-442.
Kooistra L, Berger K, Brede B, Graf LV, Aasen H, Roujean J-L, Machwitz M, Schlerf M, Atzberger C, Prikaziuk E , Ganeva D et al () Reviews and syntheses: Remotely sensed optical time series for monitoring vegetation productivity. Biogeosciences, 21(2), 473-511.
Caine RS, Harrison EL, Sloan J, Flis PM, Fischer S, Khan MS, Nguyen PT, Nguyen LT, Gray JE & Croft H () The influences of stomatal size and density on rice abiotic stress resilience. New Phytologist.
Chen JM, Wang R, Liu Y, He L, Croft H, Luo X, Wang H, Smith NG, Keenan TF, Prentice IC , Zhang Y et al () Global datasets of leaf photosynthetic capacity for ecological and earth system research. Earth System Science Data, 14(9), 4077-4093.
Qian X, Liu L, Croft H & Chen J () Relationship between Leaf Maximum Carboxylation Rate and Chlorophyll Content Preserved across 13 Species. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences.
Qian X, Liu L, Croft H & Chen J () C<sub>3</sub> plants converge on a universal relationship between leaf maximum carboxylation rate and chlorophyll content.
Qiu , Chen , Croft , Li , Zhang , Zhang & Ju () Retrieving Leaf Chlorophyll Content by Incorporating Variable Leaf Surface Reflectance in the PROSPECT Model. Remote Sensing, 11(13), 1572-1572.
Luo X, Croft H, Chen JM, He L & Keenan TF () Improved estimates of global terrestrial photosynthesis using information on leaf chlorophyll content. Global Change Biology.
Canisius F, Wang S, Croft H, Leblanc SG, Russell HAJ, Chen J & Wang R () A UAV-Based Sensor System for Measuring Land Surface Albedo: Tested over a Boreal Peatland Ecosystem. Drones, 3(1), 27-27.
Chou S, Chen J, Yu H, Chen B, Zhang X, Croft H, Khalid S, Li M & Shi Q () Canopy-Level Photochemical Reflectance Index from Hyperspectral Remote Sensing and Leaf-Level Non-Photochemical Quenching as Early Indicators of Water Stress in Maize. Remote Sensing, 9(8), 794-794.
Croft H, Arabian J, Chen JM, Shang J & Liu J () Mapping within-field leaf chlorophyll content in agricultural crops for nitrogen management using Landsat-8 imagery. Precision Agriculture. View this article in WRRO

Chapters

Croft H & Chen JM (2018) Leaf Pigment Content, Comprehensive Remote Sensing (pp. 117-142). Elsevier
() Land Resources Monitoring, Modeling, and Mapping with Remote Sensing CRC Press

Conference proceedings papers

Ma Q, Chen JM, Li Y, Croft H, Luo X, Zheng T & Zamaria S (2017) Leaf chlorophyll content estimation from sentinel-2 MSI data. 2017 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), 23 July 2017 - 28 July 2017.
Chen JM, Croft H & Zheng T (2016) Exploring the feasibility of global mapping of the leaf carboxylation rate. 2016 IEEE International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium (IGARSS), 10 July 2016 - 15 July 2016.

Preprints

Leng J, Chen JM, Li W, Luo X, Rogers C, Croft H, Xie X & Staebler RM (2024) Optimizing seasonally variable photosynthetic parameters based on joint carbon and water flux constraints, Research Square Platform LLC.
Caine R, Khan MS, Brench RA, Walker H & Croft HL (2023) Inside-out: synergising leaf biochemical traits with stomatal-regulated water fluxes to enhance transpiration modelling during abiotic stress., Authorea, Inc..
Caine RS, Harrison EL, Sloan JM, Flis PM, Fischer S, Phuoc NT, Lang NT, Gray JE & Croft HL (2022) The Influences of Stomatal Size and Density on Rice Drought, Salinity and VPD Resilience, bioRxiv.
Chen JM, Wang R, Liu Y, He L, Croft H, Luo X, Wang H, Smith NG, Keenan TF, Prentice IC , Zhang Y et al (2022) Global Datasets of Leaf Photosynthetic Capacity for Ecological and Earth System Research, EGUsphere.

Professional activities and memberships

Editorial board – American Geophysical Union books
Editorial board – MDPI Remote Sensing journal
Grant proposal reviewer for: NSERC (Canada), European Research Council, NERC (UK), BELSPO (Belgium) national research programme for earth observation.

School of Biosciences

School of Biosciences

Dr Holly Croft

Current research projects

RESOLVE: ‘Remote sensing of photosynthetic traits for high latitude plant productivity modelling’ Funding Agency: Horizon 2020 MSCA

Featured publications

All publications

Journal articles

Chapters

Conference proceedings papers

Preprints

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