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Leaf optical properties in higher plants: linking spectral characteristics to stress and chlorophyll concentration¹

Earth System Science Office, NASA, Stennis Space Center, Mississippi 39529 USA; and Division of Biology, Kansas State University, Manhattan, Kansas 66506 USA

A number of studies have linked responses in leaf spectral reflectance, transmittance, or absorptance to physiological stress. A variety of stressors including dehydration, flooding, freezing, ozone, herbicides, competition, disease, insects, and deficiencies in ectomycorrhizal development and N fertilization have been imposed on species ranging from grasses to conifers and deciduous trees. In all cases, the maximum difference in reflectance within the 400–850 nm wavelength range between control and stressed states occurred as a reflectance increase at wavelengths near 700 nm. In studies that included transmittance and absorptance as well as reflectance, maximum differences occurred as increases and decreases, respectively, near 700 nm. This common optical response to stress could be simulated closely by varying the chlorophyll concentration of model leaves (fiberglass filter pads) and by the natural variability in leaf chlorophyll concentrations in senescent leaves of five species. The optical response to stress near 700 nm, as well as corresponding changes in reflectance that occur in the green–yellow spectrum, can be explained by the general tendency of stress to reduce leaf chlorophyll concentration.

Key Words: absorptance • chlorophyll • leaf optics • light • reflectance • stress • transmittance

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