264
Reflectance (%) Reflectance (%)
Bare Soil - - - - • Pine (lyr) : Pine (3 >ts) pine (lOyrs) —— .» - Pine (23yrc) Pine (48yrs)
Waer Dedduooi ————. ora*» Road Ur tan Area
Figure 3 : AVIRIS reflectance spectra, (a) without atmospheric corrections, (b) with atmospheric corrections.
II.4 Laboratory analyses
* Chemical measurements
Chemical analyses of total nitrogen (N), lignin (L) and cellulose were conducted by Europe Sol*. Total
nitrogen (N) was calculated as 6.25 times the Kjeldahl nitrogen content (A.O.A.C., 1970), after digesting
samples in a block digestor using sulphuric acid. Lignin and cellulose were determined using a modified Van
Soest and Wine (1970) method:
- s tep 1 : hydrolysis of samples in neutral detergent solution for one hour yields neutral detergent fibre (NDF),
i.e. hemicellulose, cellulose, lignin and mineral matter.
- step 2 : hydrolysis of NDF in acid detergent solution (cetyltrimethylammonium bromide) for one hour yields
acid detergent fibre (ADF), i.e. cellulose (Cell S), lignin and mineral matter. Comparison with step 1 gives
hemicellulose (Hemi) concentration.
- step 3 : lignin (L) and mineral matter are measured as the fraction of ADF that is insoluble in sulphuric acid;
comparison with step 2 gives cellulose (Cell S) concentration.
- step 4 : the loss of weight up on ashing the mineralised residue leaves mineral matter; comparison with
step 3 yields lignin (L) concentration.
* Europe Sol is a laboratory for plant analyses, 45 rue de Geronis, 31200 - Toulouse, France.