The experimental study results of spectral characteristic change of different types of plants influenced by external factors (synthetic superficially active substances, salts of heavy metals and nitrate fertilizers) are presented. Differential optical factor was used as the monitored optical parameter that characterizes the chlorophyll concentration change. The differential backscatter method which has high test-sensitivity and provides with the most complete information on the plant condition was the main optical monitoring method. For understanding the mechanisms of external factor accumulation and influence on plants the confocal fluorescent microscopy method providing contrast micrographs of high resolution was used for microscopic analysis in the study. It was revealed that synthetic superficially active substances and heavy metal presence lead to quasilinear decrease of differential backscatter factor with time. It was shown that the presence of salts of heavy metals in a water solution leads to chlorophyll "binding" which is microscopically shown as their «adhesion» near the cell membranes. On the contrary, the presence of synthetic superficially active substances maintains the uniformity of chlorophyll distribution in a cell, but its concentration falls with increasing the concentration in a major emission. The latter depends on the fact that synthetic superficially active substances solubilize the cell membrane proteins, increasing its penetrability. It causes pigment release ("washing away") from a plant, thereby leading to differential optical factor change. It was shown that nitrate fertilizer presence leads to increase of differential backscatter factor with time which is microscopically connected to increase in chlorophyll concentration.

Date Published: 24 October 2012
PDF: 6 pages
Proc. SPIE 8513, Remote Sensing and Modeling of Ecosystems for Sustainability IX, 85130S (24 October 2012); doi: 10.1117/12.929284

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 8513:
Remote Sensing and Modeling of Ecosystems for Sustainability IX
Wei Gao; Thomas J. Jackson, Editor(s)