@article{fdi:010049396,
  title = {{D}iscriminating between organic matter in soil from grass and forest by near-infrared spectroscopy},
  author = {{E}rtlen, {D}. and {S}chwartz, {D}. and {T}rautmann, {M}. and {W}ebster, {R}. and {B}runet, {D}idier},
  editor = {},
  language = {{ENG}},
  abstract = {{T}he absorbance of near-infrared ({NIR}) radiation by plants depends on the overtones of vibration, bending and stretching of the chemical bonds within their organic components. {T}he wide variety of these bonds gives rise to characteristic {NIR} spectra, or 'fingerprints', of plant materials. {D}o these fingerprints remain in the soil when the plants decompose and allow discrimination between soils that have supported different types of vegetation? {W}e have compared the {NIR} spectra of grassland soil with those of soil under forest in the {V}osges mountains in {F}rance. {N}ear-infrared reflectances, {R}, from 370 samples of soil were recorded as {A} = log(10)(1/{R}) at wavelengths between 1100 and 2500 nm and averaged over 10-nm intervals to give spectra each with 140 values. {A} canonical variate analysis ({CVA}) of the raw spectra discriminated well, but not perfectly, between grassland and forest soil, with {M}ahalanobis distance, {D}, of 4.87. {S}tandardization along the spectra to remove effects of varied mineral composition achieved complete separation between the two sources with {D} = 9.81. {C}anonical variate analysis of first and second derivatives of the spectra distinguished the two groups even better, with {D} = 12.27 and {D} = 16.65, respectively. {T}he results show much promise for inferring past vegetative cover from {NIR} spectra deriving from the organic matter in the soil. {T}he next step will be to extend these studies to see how well we can distinguish other types of vegetation from such spectra.},
  keywords = {},
  booktitle = {},
  journal = {{E}uropean {J}ournal of {S}oil {S}cience},
  volume = {61},
  numero = {2},
  pages = {207--216},
  ISSN = {1351-0754},
  year = {2010},
  DOI = {10.1111/j.1365-2389.2009.01219.x},
  URL = {https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010049396},
}