A semi‐empirical model to estimate the biomass production of forest canopies from spectral variables Part 1: Relationship between spectral variables and light interception efficiency

Abstract

Abstract Empirical studies using remotely sensed data to estimate forest stand parameters have shown that the biological variable which is most closely functionally linked to the spectral response of the canopy is the leaf area index (LAI). The LAI is highly important for the photosynthetic functioning of the canopy since it has a dominant influence on the light interception capability or efficiency e(i). This efficiency depends on the LAI and on the optical properties of the canopy elements and it is also functionally linked to the canopy reflectance. Furthermore, this efficiency is linked to the biomass production of forest canopies since this latter is the result of photosynthesis, through which a fraction of the intercepted incident solar energy is converted into biomass. We propose a semi‐empirical model between ei and canopy reflectance (in terms of normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI)) which results from coupling semi‐empirical models of reflectance and light interception which are based o...