All organisms interact via chemical signals. As such, chemical ecology plays a central role in explaining the interactions among organisms and their environment and how these interactions affect ecosystem functioning. Traditionally, standard chemical measurements are time consuming, expensive, and require destructive sampling. The use of reflectance spectroscopy to characterize foliar chemistry is based on the influence of illumination on the harmonic vibrations between atoms or among groups of atoms, specifically C–H, N–H and O–H bonds, the main constituents of organic material, at specific wavelengths in the visible,

near-infrared (NIR) and shortwave infrared (SWIR). Reflectance spectroscopy provides a promising alternative approach to analyzing phytochemical variation because the method is noninvasive, relatively inexpensive, fast, and can be applied to living tissue.

A major focus of this research is to expand the library of traits that can be reliably estimated using spectroscopy. A secondary focus of the this work is to try and identify relationships among specific constituent traits and spectra that can more conclusively link trait properties with spectral features. By combining standard chemical techniques and reliable spectral measurements we hope to advance the utility of spectroscopy in chemical ecology.

Lab Members: John Couture

Collaborators: Richard Lindroth