Open AccessGlobal remote sensing of water–chlorophyll ratio in terrestrial plant leaves
Author(s) -
Kushida Keiji
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
ecology and evolution
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.17
H-Index - 63
ISSN - 2045-7758
DOI - 10.1002/ece3.361
Subject(s) - leaf area index , canopy , remote sensing , chlorophyll , terrestrial plant , vegetation (pathology) , environmental science , mathematics , atmospheric sciences , botany , physics , biology , geography , medicine , pathology
I evaluated the use of global remote sensing techniques for estimating plant leaf chlorophyll a + b ( C ab ; μg cm −2 ) and water ( C w ; mg cm −2 ) concentrations as well as the ratio of C w / C ab with the PROSAIL model under possible distributions for leaf and soil spectra, leaf area index ( LAI ), canopy geometric structure, and leaf size. First, I estimated LAI from the normalized difference vegetation index. I found that, at LAI values <2, C ab , C w , and C w / C ab could not be reliably estimated. At LAI values >2, C ab and C w could be estimated for only restricted ranges of the canopy structure; however, the ratio of C w / C ab could be reliably estimated for a variety of possible canopy structures with coefficients of determination ( R 2 ) ranging from 0.56 to 0.90. The remote estimation of the C w / C ab ratio from satellites offers information on plant condition at a global scale.