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Abstract
The use of remote sensing to identify forest species has been ongoing since the launch of Landsat-1 using MSS imagery. The ability to separate hardwoods from conifers was accomplished by the 1980s. However, distinguishing individual hardwood species is more problematic due to similar spectral and phenological characteristics. With the launch of commercial satellites with 1-meter panchromatic and 4-meter multispectral resolution or better resolution the potential exists to distinguish individual tree crowns and thus tree species. We attempted to distinguish five hardwood tree species: American beech, black oak, sugar maple, yellow-poplar, and white oak. These five species occur commonly in southern Indiana. The spectral reflectance of single leaves from five trees of each of the fi ve species, collected monthly from May to November, was determined using a LI-COR spectroradiometer and a specially designed spectroradiometer. We found no significant difference in the reflectance spectra of the leaves of these five species in the blue (0.45-0.52µm), green (0.52-0.60 µm), red (0.63-0.69 µm), and near-infrared (0.76-0.85 µm) wavelengths. While higher spatial resolution satellite imagery is now available, our research indicates that spectral resolution still is not sufficiently high to separate hardwood trees species.
Parent Publication
Citation
Weigel, Dale R.; Randolph, J.C. 2013. Spectral reflectance of five hardwood tree species in southern Indiana. In: Miller, Gary W.; Schuler, Thomas M.; Gottschalk, Kurt W.; Brooks, John R.; Grushecky, Shawn T.; Spong, Ben D.; Rentch, James S., eds. Proceedings, 18th Central Hardwood Forest Conference; 2012 March 26-28; Morgantown, WV; Gen. Tech. Rep. NRS-P-117. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station: 276-282.
