An established strength of imaging spectroscopy is its ability to map
vegetation species. Differences in leaf-to-canopy scale biochemistry and
structure can create distinguishable differences in reflectance spectra.
Somers et al. (2015-in this issue) examine changes in tropical forest
reflectance spectra across a precipitation gradient in Panama. They
link coefficient of variation calculated from reflectance spectra to species
richness, and a spectral similarity index to species overlap. Spectral
variability was highest at a more biodiverse moist forest site and lowest
at a dry forest site. Differences in spectral variability were most pronounced
in the visible and shortwave infrared spectral regions. Their
analysis demonstrates the potential for HyspIRI VSWIR data to estimate
biodiversity in tropical forest ecosystems.