Spectral properties of iron-deficient corn and sunflower leaves

✍ Scribed by Marco Mariotti; Laura Ercoli; Alessandro Masoni

• Book ID: 104165424
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 648 KB
• Volume: 58
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0034-4257
• DOI: 10.1016/s0034-4257(96)00070-3

✦ Synopsis

Plant response to iron deficiency has been extensively studied, but little is known concerning the effects of iron deficiency-induced modifications in leaf spectral properties. Spectral changes in corn and sunflower plants grown in nutrient solutions containing five iron rates from mg L-i 0 to 4 mg L-~ were therefore investigated. In both corn and sunflower, iron deficiency decreased leaf dry weight, area, iron concentration, chlorophyll a and b concentrations, and absorptance, increased reflectance and transmittance, and shifted the red edge position of reflectance curves towards shorter wavelengths. Leaf iron concentration was well correlated with leaf chlorophyll a (r= 0.92) and b (r=0.93) concentrations across crop species. Reflectance was a nonlinear inverse function, and absorptance was a nonlinear increasing function of leaf iron concentration and leaf chlorophyll a concentration. Corn teas nmre sensitive to iron deficiency than sunflower and corn required higher iron concentration than sunflowerfiw optimal growth.