USE OF FIELD PHOTOMETRY TO DETECT GEOCHEMICAL ANOMALIES FROM VEGETATION STRESS

Abstract

This paper investigates the possibility of detecting and studying low-contrast soil geochemical anomalies on the basis of photometric characteristics of indicator plants. An initial section of the paper outlines basic patterns of change in the photometric properties of vegetation as a result of vegetation stress induced by elevated levels of certain chemical elements in the soil. A subsequent section presents the results of an experiment testing this relationship in an area of pyrite mineralization in the Lake Ladoga region of northwestern Russia.