Hyperspectral characterization of microphytobenthic biofilms

The optical properties of a laboratory simulated microphytobenthic biofilm were calculated by using the reflectance measurements. The biofilm was simulated as a mixture of a concentrated E.Paludosa culture (38000000 psi.mL^-1) and agar¹. The classical radiative transfer formulas are used in the case of a multilayer model in order to calculate the proper spectral characteristics of the biofilm in the absence of background. The attenuation factor calculation could be applied for the purpose of mixing problem. The methodology is applicable on the other type of samples, a layer of diatom cells deposited on a PC filter. This latter will be used to calculate the absorption coefficient of biofilm and applied in a spectral library in order to map the biomass on the field from hyperspectral satellite/aerial images.