Abstract Foliar reflectance is readily used in evaluating physiological status of agricultural crops and forest stands. However, in the case of forest trees, underlying genetics of foliar spectral reflectance and pigment content have rarely been investigated. We studied a structured population of Scots pine, replicated on two sites, with the selected trees´ pedigree reconstructed via DNA markers. This allowed us to decompose phenotypic variance of pigment and reflectance traits into its causal genetic components, and to estimate narrow-sense heritability (h2). We found statistically significant h2 ranging from 0.07 to 0.22 for most of the established reflectance indices. Additionally, we investigated the profile of heritable variation along the reflectance curve in 1 nm wavelength (WL) bands. We show that the maximum h2 value (0.39; SE 0.13) across the 400 to 2500 nm spectral range corresponds to the red edge inflection point, in this case to 722 nm WL band. Resultant h2 distribution indicates that additive gene effects fluctuate along the reflectance curve. Furthermore, h2 of the most widely used formats of reflectance indices, i.e. the simple ratio and the normalized difference, was estimated for all WL bands combined along the observed reflectance spectrum. The highest h2 estimates for both formats were obtained by combining WL bands of the red edge spectrum. These new genetically driven pigment- and spectral reflectance- based markers (proxies of adaptive traits) may facilitate selection of stress resistant plant genotypes. Recent development of high-resolution spectral sensors carried by airborne and spaceborn devices make foliage spectral traits a viable technology for mass phenotyping in forest trees.

中文翻译：

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红边中苏格兰松 (Pinus sylvestris L.) 峰的针光谱反射率的遗传变异

摘要 叶面反射率可方便地用于评价农作物和林分的生理状态。然而，就林木而言，很少研究叶面光谱反射率和色素含量的潜在遗传学。我们研究了在两个地点复制的结构化苏格兰松树种群，并通过 DNA 标记重建了选定树木的谱系。这使我们能够将色素和反射性状的表型变异分解为其因果遗传成分，并估计狭义遗传力 (h2)。我们发现大多数已建立的反射指数的统计显着性 h2 范围为 0.07 到 0.22。此外，我们研究了沿 1 nm 波长 (WL) 波段反射曲线的遗传变异曲线。我们表明最大 h2 值 (0.39; SE 0. 13) 在 400 到 2500 nm 的光谱范围内对应于红色边缘拐点，在这种情况下是 722 nm WL 波段。结果 h2 分布表明加性基因效应沿反射曲线波动。此外，最广泛使用的反射指数格式的 h2，即简单比值和归一化差值，是针对沿观察到的反射光谱组合的所有 WL 波段进行估计的。两种格式的最高 h2 估计值是通过组合红色边缘光谱的 WL 波段获得的。这些新的遗传驱动的基于色素和光谱反射率的标记（适应性特征的代表）可能有助于选择抗逆植物基因型。