PLANT REFLECTED SPECTRA DEPENDING ON BIOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS AND GROWTH CONDITIONS

Abstract

Sustainable and economically based forestry needs modern inventory and monitoring techniques. One of the most common technologies for identification of forest tree species and monitoring of forest growth conditions is the hyperspectral remote sensing. This technology gives an opportunity to economize human resources and time for data collecting and processing. The spectral behaviour of plant leaves depends on number of factors, including environmental background. The aim of this study was to assess the tree reflectance spectra in relation to the growth conditions to take into account potential differences for increasing precision of species identification in Latvian forests and for estimating of forest growth conditions. Remote sensing data were obtained using a specialized aircraft (Pilatus PC-6), which is equipped with a high-performance airborne VNIR pushbroom hyperspectral system (AisaEAGLE). The study area was flown at 1000 m altitude. Data was recorded in the 400–970 nm spectral range, spectral resolution was 3.3 nm, ground resolution 0.5 m. Data processing consisted of manually selecting trees with a recognizable tree crowns in the airborne images. Tree centres were adjusted by putting them in the accurate position according to the situation in aerial photography. All trees with a diameter at breast height DBH of more than 5 cm were measured and for each tree coordinates, its species, height, DBH, crown width and length were recorded. Differentially corrected Global Positioning System measurements were used to determine the position of each plot centre. Data from different hyperspectral bands were compared using ANOVA at confidence level 95 %. Four species: Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.), Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst), silver birch (Betula pendula Roth), and European aspen (Populus tremula L.) – were examined in distinct forest site types. The spectral response of studied species was 1) different between species and 2) different between site types within each species, correlating with soil fertility gradient and soil moisture gradient. Differences between species occurred most in the intensity of reflected electromagnetic radiation rather than distinctive locations of maximums or minimums in spectrum curve, and near infrared (NIR) region of spectrum showed more differences between species than visible light zone. Most informative wavebands for distinguishing differences between site types were 805 nm and 644 nm.

Keywords: Hyperspectral, remote sensing, leaf reflectance, species identification, forest growth conditions, soil fertility, forest site types, forest mapping.

Article DOI: http://doi.org/10.15544/RD.2015.045