A Comparison of Reflectance Characteristics of some Australian Eucalyptus Species Based on High Spectral Resolution Data: Discriminating Using the Visible and NIR Regions

Abstract

Laboratory measurements of the spectral reflectance of leaves from eleven common eastern Australian eucalypts were made over the 400-2400 nm range using an Infra-Red Intelligent Spectroradiometer (IRIS) spectroradiometer. Spectral differences among the different species were studied in terms of reflectance (550 nm, 630 nm, 800 nm, green peak maximum reflectance and chlorophyll well maximum absorption) and wavelength positions (red edge, green peak maximum reflectance, cholorophyll well maximum absorption and red edge inflection point). This paper discusses the differences between the species in the visible and red-edge regions only. Results indicate that, while spectra from different eucalyptus species appear similar in terms of shape and positions of absorption features, statistically significant differences do exist. These differences are in terms of absolute reflectance, depths of absorption features and the relative position of change in terms of the wavelength.