EARSeL 34th Symposium Proceedings, 16-20 June 2014 6.1 © EARSeL and University of Warsaw, 2014, ISBN 978-83-63245-65-8, DOI: 10.12760/03-2014-11, Zagajewski B., Kycko M., Reuter R. (eds.) Models for estimating leaf pigments and relative water content in three vertical canopy levels of norway spruce based on laboratory spectroscopy Lucie Cervena 1 , Zuzana Lhotakova 2 , Lucie Kupkova 1 , Monika Kovarova 2 and Jana Albrechtova 2 1 Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Science, Department of Applied Geoinformatics and Cartography, Prague, Czech Republic; lucie.cervena@natur.cuni.cz, lucie.kupkova@gmail.com 2 Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Science, Department of Experimental Plant Biology, Prague, Czech Republic; zuzana.lhotakova@natur.cuni.cz, monika.kovarova@natur.cuni.cz, jana.albrechtova@natur.cuni.cz Abstract. Unique set of data was obtained during the field campaign in the Krušné hory Mts. (the western part of the Czech Republic) in August 2013. From fifty five representative 80-year-old trees of Norway Spruce (Picea abies L. Karst.) equally distributed on eleven study sites, branches were taken in three vertical canopy levels (sunlit productive upper and lower parts of a tree crown, shaded saturated part of a tree crown) and first three needle age classes were analysed. Spectral reflectance of these spruce foliage samples was measured in the range between 350 and 2,500 nm using an ASD FieldSpec 4 Wide-Res spec- trometer in combination with the fibre optic contact probe. Some samples were also measured in the integrating sphere. Photosynthetic pigment (total chloro- phylls, total carotenoids) contents and relative water content were determined in laboratory for all samples. The results of analysis of variance (ANOVA) show that the contents of pigments and relative water content are significantly different not only between the needle age classes (what is widely known) but also in the verti- cal canopy levels. There are only few studies dealing with vertical heterogeneity in Norway spruce canopy. Thus, the main goal of this study is to build and com- pare the statistically based prediction models for photosynthetic pigments and water content estimation for three vertical canopy levels of Norway Spruce. The- se results in classifications of biochemical and biophysical properties of Norway Spruce stands using hyperspectral remote sensing data. Keywords. Norway Spruce, laboratory spectroscopy, Krusne hory Mts., RWC, Chlorophyll, Carotenoids. 1. Introduction Remotely sensed leaf biochemical and biophysical properties can be used for large-scale spatial and temporal monitoring of vegetation physiological status or ecosystem functioning. For airborne hyperspectral data interpretation or modelling of reflectance at canopy level several foliar proper- ties play minor role (e.g. internal leaf structure). However, leaf clumping, proportion of woody con- stituents or vertical gradients in biochemical and biophysical leaf traits may influence radiative transfer modelling at the canopy level. Leaf biochemical composition affects foliar optical properties and can be retrieved from contin- uous spectral data [1], [2]. There are two modelling approaches to link content of biochemical compounds or biophysical parameters of vegetation to spectra – empirical (different regressions, e.g. [1]) and physical (radiative transfer models, e.g [3]). The main advantage of the empirical