Discrimination of mangrove species in Matang Mangrove Forest Reserve, Perak using in-situ measurement of hyperspectral leaf reflectance

Abstract

Studies of mangrove species’s reflectance characteristic are important in order to have a deep understanding of mangrove vegetation. In this paper, the significant wavelengths which can be used to separate the six mangrove species at Matang Mangrove Forest Reserve (MMFR), Perak were examined. The investigated mangrove species comprise of Rhizophora apiculata, Acrostichum aurem, Acrostichum speciosum, Acanthus ilicifolius, Ceriops tagal and Sonneratia ovata. In-situ spectral reflectance data of six mangrove species’s leaf were obtained using ASD FieldSpec3 spectroradiometer and were statistically tested using SPSS program. First, wavelengths which exhibited significant differences (P value<0.05) among the mean reflectance of six mangrove species were identified using a series of one way ANOVA. Second, the identified wavelengths were further analyzed using canonical stepwise discriminant analysis and 26 significant wavelengths were obtained which can be utilized to distinguish among the six mangrove species. In conclusion, each mangrove species in MMFR have it own unique reflectance properties and these characteristic enable the mangrove species can be discriminated among each other under proper analysis and data extraction.