Applications of Optical Spectroscopy in Plant Sciences

Dear Colleagues,

Currently, there are many non-invasive technologies applied to monitoring plants under various conditions, stemming from the development of optical spectroscopy techniques. These are implemented in devices with different functionalities and hardware, assisted by the increasingly accessible computing power and machine learning techniques. Optical spectroscopy has been used to evaluate crop quality and yield and plant responses to biotic and abiotic stress, screening various pathologies, and assessing the contamination in agricultural soils and the impact of plant species in ecosystem biodiversity and sustainability.

In this Special Issue, we invite submissions exploring the development and applications of different forms of optical spectroscopy in plants, namely, visible/near infrared (spectral, multispectral, and hyperspectral), fluorescence (e.g., laser-induced fluorescence) and Raman. Contributions can focus on the development of different spectroscopic systems, applications performed with commercial devices for the monitoring of plants’ responses under specific conditions, or integrated monitoring systems. Survey papers and reviews are also welcomed.

Dr. Ana M. Cavaco
Dr. Andrei B. Utkin
Dr. Jorge Marques da Silva
Dr. Rui Guerra
Guest Editors

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