Leaf Reflectance Macrophyte Species

Macrophytes are key players in aquatic ecosystems diversity, but knowledge on variability of their functional traits, among and within species, is still limited. Remote sensing is a high-throughput, feasible option for characterizing plant traits at different scales, provided that reliable spectroscopy models are calibrated with congruous empirical data. We sampled leaves from six macrophyte species common in temperate areas, covering different phenological stages, seasons, and environmental conditions, and measured leaf reflectance (400-2500 nm) and traits (dealing with photophysiology, pigments and leaf economics). We explored optimal spectral bands combinations and established non-parametric reflectance-based models for selected traits, eventually showing how airborne hyperspectral data can capture spatial-temporal macrophyte variability. Our key finding is that structural, leaf dry matter content, leaf mass per area (LMA), and biochemical, chlorophyll-a content and chlorophyll to carotenoids ratio, traits can be surrogated by leaf reflectance with relative error under 20% across macrophyte species, while performance of reflectance-based models for photophysiological traits depends on species. This finding shows the link between leaf reflectance and structural-biochemical traits for aquatic plants, thus supporting the use of remote sensing for enhancing the level of detail of macrophyte functional diversity analysis, to intra-site and intra-species scales.

Leaf Reflectance Macrophyte Species

Authors: Paolo Villa, Rossano Bolpagni, Monica Pinardi, Viktor R. Tóth

Keywords : aquatic plants; chlorophyll-a; functional traits; intraspecific variability; photophysiology, parameters; leaf economics spectrum (LES); remote sensing; spectroscopy

Full Range Photodiode Array UV-Vis-NIR Spectroradiometer

Working with a spectroradiometer in the lab is necessary for many applications that require handling sensitive materials that cannot maintain their integrity outside of lab conditions, such as calibration transfer or testing solar simulators, and scanning materials that require sanitary conditions. Spectral Evolution offers a variety of spectroradiometers designed with these delicate tasks in mind.

Spectral Evolution’s SR-Series Laboratory spectroradiometers deliver high sensitivity with a high signal-to-noise ratio and an unmatched wide dynamic range. Our spectroradiometers are calibrated for solar radiance to generate a spectral match report for measuring class performance as per IEC60904-9/ASTM E927-05, making them especially useful for measuring continuous or pulse solar simulators.

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