Plant spectra as integrative measures of plant phenotypes

Spectroscopy at the leaf and canopy scales has attracted considerable interest in plant ecology over past decades. Using reflectance spectra, ecologists can infer traits strategies—and community- or ecosystem-level processes they correlate with—at individual community levels, covering more individuals larger areas than traditional field surveys. Because of complex entanglement structural chemical factors that generate it be tricky to understand exactly what phenotypic information contain. We discuss common approaches estimating from spectra—radiative transfer empirical models—and elaborate on their strengths limitations terms causal influences various spectrum. Many have broad, shallow overlapping absorption features, we suggest covariance among may an important role giving models flexibility estimate such traits. While trait estimates spectra been used test ecological hypotheses decades, there is also a growing body research uses directly, without specific By treating positions species multidimensional spectral space as analogous space, researchers structure communities using content full spectrum, which greater any standard set illustrate this power by showing co-occurring grassland are separable intrinsic dimensionality data comparable fairly comprehensive datasets. Nevertheless, way make harder interpret patterns biological processes. Synthesis. Plant integrate many aspects form function. The spectrum distilled into traits, its own right. These two complementary—the former being most useful when known advance reliable exist them, latter under uncertainty about function matter most.