Spectral Signatures analysis of macrophyte species

Author(s)

Cristina Aparicio

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto de Biociências (IBIOC/SB)
• Defense date: 2007-10-25

Examining board members

Marisa Dantas Bitencourt; Gregório Cardoso Tápias Ceccantini; Welington Braz Carvalho Delitti; Arnildo Pott; Dalton de Morisson Valeriano

• Advisor: Marisa Dantas Bitencourt

Abstract

The differentiation of macrophytes species using Remote Sensing is recommended in a world where the economy and healthy are being highly injured by the increased number of urban population and their damages to the aquatic environments. The lack of the basic research related to the acquisition of spectral signatures of species has been raising difficulties on the discrimination of them in multispectral images. Aims: Knowing this lack of basic research, this work has the goals of analyze the spectral signatures of macrophytes species, looking for its differentiation, and compare spectral the reflectance in the Near Infrared (NIR) region of the Electromagnetic Spectrum with the anatomic variables: thickness of the leaf, thickness of the spongy mesophyll, percentage of the spongy mesophyll in the leaf, and percentage of the aerial spaces inside this mesophyll. Methodology: To reach these goals, it was collected spectroradiometric data of macrophytes species. Primarily it was tested the differentiation between two species in an orbital image. Afterward, it was carried out some laboratory experiments, which were mathematically analyzed looking for their relationships. Then, it was accomplished the leaves anatomical studies of five macrophytes species, whose values where compared with the spectral signature in the NIR region. Results: The initial spectral signatures database was compared inter and intra-specifically, and it were used mathematical descriptors to verify the possibilities of species differentiation. Leaves with maximum, medium and minimum reflectance of five species chosen because of their importance on infestations, was anatomically analyzed and it were calculated the values of the thickness of the leaf, thickness of the spongy mesophyll, percentage of the spongy mesophyll in the leaf, and percentage of the aerial spaces inside this mesophyll. Conclusions: The descriptors used to analyze the spectral signatures denote efficiency in the differentiation of macrophytes species in laboratory. Among them, the one that has been showed the best results for the species differentiation was the Red Edge Position. The anatomical characteristics achieved with confocal and light microscopy made feasible to differentiate the species. Besides that, it was possible to verify that the analyzed anatomical characteristics were highly correlated with reflectance in some species in the NIR region. (AU)