Near Infrared Spectroscopy Facilitates Rapid Identification of Both Young and Mature Amazonian Tree Species

Precise identification of plant species requires a high level of knowledge by taxonomists and presence of reproductive material. This represents a major limitation for those working with seedlings and juveniles, which differ morphologically from adults and do not bear reproductive structures. Near-i...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2015-08, Vol.10 (8), p.e0134521-e0134521
Main Authors: Lang, Carla, Costa, Flávia Regina Capellotto, Camargo, José Luís Campana, Durgante, Flávia Machado, Vicentini, Alberto
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adults
Biodiversity
Brazil
Chemical properties
Classification - methods
Deoxyribonucleic acid
Developmental stages
Discriminant analysis
DNA
Flowers & plants
Genera
I.R. radiation
Identification
Identification and classification
Infrared spectra
Infrared spectroscopy
Leaves
Mathematical models
Methods
Morphology
Near infrared radiation
Near infrared spectroscopy
Ontogeny
Phylogeny
Plant Leaves
Plant species
Predictions
Rainforests
Seedlings
Species
Species (Biology)
Species Specificity
Spectroscopy
Spectroscopy, Near-Infrared - methods
Taxonomy
Trees - classification
Trees - growth & development
Wavelengths
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Summary:Precise identification of plant species requires a high level of knowledge by taxonomists and presence of reproductive material. This represents a major limitation for those working with seedlings and juveniles, which differ morphologically from adults and do not bear reproductive structures. Near-infrared spectroscopy (FT-NIR) has previously been shown to be effective in species discrimination of adult plants, so if young and adults have a similar spectral signature, discriminant functions based on FT-NIR spectra of adults can be used to identify leaves from young plants. We tested this with a sample of 419 plants in 13 Amazonian species from the genera Protium and Crepidospermum (Burseraceae). We obtained 12 spectral readings per plant, from adaxial and abaxial surfaces of dried leaves, and compared the rate of correct predictions of species with discriminant functions for different combinations of readings. We showed that the best models for predicting species in early developmental stages are those containing spectral data from both young and adult plants (98% correct predictions of external samples), but even using only adult spectra it is still possible to attain good levels of identification of young. We obtained an average of 75% correct identifications of young plants by discriminant equations based only on adults, when the most informative wavelengths were selected. Most species were accurately predicted (75-100% correct identifications), and only three had poor predictions (27-60%). These results were obtained despite the fact that spectra of young individuals were distinct from those of adults when species were analyzed individually. We concluded that FT-NIR has a high potential in the identification of species even at different ontogenetic stages, and that young plants can be identified based on spectra of adults with reasonable confidence.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0134521