Spectral variability of atlantic forest species

This paper investigates the spectral variability of Brazilian Atlantic Forest trees. Spectroscopy data (reflectance and transmittance) of full sunlight leaves were collected. The root mean square difference between pairs of spectra were used to estimate within- and between-species variability. It was also performed a feature selection procedure to identify spectral regions where the species most differ. Results show that between- is greater than within-species variability, evidencing the potential of spectroscopy measurements to species discrimination. Moreover, it was verified that spectral diversity of species is concentrated on the optical and near-infrared domain. Differences in leaf internal structure and leaf pigments (chlorophylls and carotenoids) concentration may be responsible to the observed variation.