SO Colloquium: Spatially resolved spectroscopy properties of low-redshift galaxies

We summarize here some of the results reviewed recently by Sanchez (2020) and Sanchez  et al. (2021) comprising the advances in the comprehension of galaxies in the nearby universe based on integral field spectroscopic galaxy surveys. We review our current knowledge of the spatially resolved spectroscopic properties of low-redshift star-forming galaxies (and their retired counterparts) using results from the most recent optical integral field spectroscopy galaxy surveys. We briefly summarize the global spectroscopic properties of these galaxies, discussing the main ionization processes, and the global relations described by the star-formation rates, gas-phase oxygen abundances, and average properties of their stellar populations (age and metallicity) in comparison with the stellar mass. Then, we present the local distribution of the ionizing processes down to kiloparsec scales, and how the global scaling relations found using integrated parameters (like the star-formation main sequence, mass–metallicity relation, and Schmidt–Kennicutt law) have local/resolved counterparts, with the global ones being, for the most part, just integrated/average versions of the local ones.  The main  conclusions of the most recent explorations are that the evolution of galaxies is mostly governed by local processes but clearly affected by global ones.