ArticleThe New phytologist2020
Leaf reflectance spectra capture the evolutionary history of seed plants.
Article in The New phytologist, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 40 papers.
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Who cites it
40 citing papers in PubMed.
- Spectral network analysis illuminates coordinated plant traits across a climate gradient.The New phytologist · 2026Article
- VIS-NIR-SWIR Proximal Spectroradiometry Coupled with Machine Learning and Deep Learning for Ornamental Plant Identification and Classification.ACS omega · 2026Article
- Seeing herbaria in a new light: leaf reflectance spectroscopy unlocks trait and classification modeling in plant biodiversity collections.The New phytologist · 2026Article
- Genetic constraints on in-situ reflectance spectral variation in bermudagrass populations across Hainan Island.Plant phenomics (Washington, D.C.) · 2026Article
- Disentangling heritability and plasticity effects on Populus fremontii leaf reflectance across a temperature gradient.Oecologia · 2025Article
- Foliar spectral signatures reveal adaptive divergence in live oaks (Quercus section Virentes) across species and environmental niches.The New phytologist · 2025Article
- Assessing Species Fractional Cover and α-Diversity in Boreal Peatlands Across Trophic Levels Using Hyperspectral Data.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Foliar Endophytic Fungal Communities Are Driven by Leaf Traits-Evidence From a Temperate Tree Diversity Experiment.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- Spectral biology across scales in changing environments.Ecology · 2025Review
- All the light we cannot see: Climate manipulations leave short and long-term imprints in spectral reflectance of trees.Ecology · 2025Article
- When can we detect lianas from space? Toward a mechanistic understanding of liana-infested forest optics.Ecology · 2025Article
- Tree diversity shapes the spectral signature of light transmittance in developing forests.Ecology · 2025Article
- Hyperspectral Leaf Reflectance Detects Interactive Genetic and Environmental Effects on Tree Phenotypes, Enabling Large-Scale Monitoring and Restoration Planning Under Climate Change.Plant, cell & environment · 2025Article
- The biodiversity survey of the Cape (BioSCape), integrating remote sensing with biodiversity science.npj biodiversity · 2025Review
- Satellite Observations Reveal a Positive Relationship Between Trait-Based Diversity and Drought Response in Temperate Forests.Global change biology · 2025Article
- Plant diversity across dimensions: Coupling biodiversity measures from the ground and the sky.Science advances · 2025Article
- Leaf functional trait evolution and its putative climatic drivers in African Coffea species.Annals of botany · 2024Article
- Disease resistance gene count increases with rainfall inEcology and evolution · 2024Article
- Current and Near-Term Earth-Observing Environmental Satellites, Their Missions, Characteristics, Instruments, and Applications.Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Review
- Drivers of plant diversity, community composition, functional traits, and soil processes along an alpine gradient in the central Chilean Andes.Ecology and evolution · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
13 authors.
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Abstract
Leaf reflectance spectra have been increasingly used to assess plant diversity. However, we do not yet understand how spectra vary across the tree of life or how the evolution of leaf traits affects the differentiation of spectra among species and lineages. Here we describe a framework that integrates spectra with phylogenies and apply it to a global dataset of over 16 000 leaf-level spectra (400-2400 nm) for 544 seed plant species. We test for phylogenetic signal in spectra, evaluate their ability to classify lineages, and characterize their evolutionary dynamics. We show that phylogenetic signal is present in leaf spectra but that the spectral regions most strongly associated with the phylogeny vary among lineages. Despite among-lineage heterogeneity, broad plant groups, orders, and families can be identified from reflectance spectra. Evolutionary models also reveal that different spectral regions evolve at different rates and under different constraint levels, mirroring the evolution of their underlying traits. Leaf spectra capture the phylogenetic history of seed plants and the evolutionary dynamics of leaf chemistry and structure. Consequently, spectra have the potential to provide breakthrough assessments of leaf evolution and plant phylogenetic diversity at global scales.
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