Is vegetation hyperspectral reflectance helpful for soil contamination?

By: Corina Pina

In this study, oil and gas productions were being monitored on the plant species Rubus at two    different scales which were plant and leaf as shown in Fig. 1 below. All of these samples were being conducted in a greenhouse using hyperspectral reflactance, (A) is showing the leaf scale and (B) is showing the plant scale 61 days into this study. 

 Mean reflectance of Rubus grown under different conditions (Lassalle, 2018)

Different plant species have different reactions and sensitivities to oil and gas when exposed to them. The reason for the use of  hyperspectral spectroscapy is it finds contamination in the vegetated areas which is a bit more difficult. It gives a lot of information that is needed when it comes to soil contamination due to the fact that it goes a little deeper than any other resource does. Results show that the absorption of the wavelengths is what grabs most of the important information that is needed to see if the soils of any species of plants are contaminated. The more a plant or a leaf is being affected by the oil the easier is it for the contamination to be detected. This particular technique that is being used in studies is very helpful when it comes to oil spill detection but can be a bit inconvenient when it comes to our environmental sustainability. Other options such as maybe using  equipment that is less expensive or other ways of conducting these experiments properly without technology can help tremendously in terms of sustainability. Replacing this technique is something that shouldn't be done because of how it detects contamination when needed. Improving it to help larger case studies in the future is the best idea. Studies show that this technique isn't one that has been used for a long time, it is one of the newer ones and they've found it works really well in these studies of oil spills in soil.




Reference: Guillaume Lassalle, Anthony Credoz, Rémy Hédacq, Sophie Fabre, Dominique Dubucq, and Arnaud   Elger Environmental Science & Technology 2018 52 (4), 1756-1764 DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.7b04618