A local model based on environmental variables clustering for estimating foliar phosphorus of rubber trees with vis-NIR spectroscopic data

Existing local models based on multiple environmental variables clustering (LM-MEVC) treat the influences of environmental factors on leaf phosphorus concentration (LPC) of rubber trees (Hevea brasiliensis) equally when grouping samples. In fact, the effects that environmental factors assert on LPC are different. So, environmental factors need to be treated differently so that the different effects can be taken into consideration when dividing samples into clusters or groups. According to this basic idea, a local model based on weighted environmental variables clustering (LM-WEVC) was developed. This approach consists of four steps. Firstly, the most important environmental variables that influence LPC were selected. Then, the weights of the selected environmental variables were determined. In the following, the selected environmental variables were weighted and used as clustering variables to group samples. Finally, within each cluster or group of samples, an estimation model was established. In order to verify its effectiveness in predicting LPC of rubber trees, the proposed method was applied to a case study in Hainan Island, China. Rubber tree (cultivar CATAS-7-33-97) leaf samples were collected from three different sampling periods. Spectral reflectance of the collected leaf samples was measured using an ASD spectroradiometer, FieldSpec 3. Leaf samples collected from the three different sampling periods were used separately to test LM-WEVC. Coefficient of determination (R(2)), root mean squared error (RMSE), and ratio of prediction deviation (RPD) were employed as evaluation criterion. Performance of LM-WEVC was compared with that of the existing LM-MEVC. Results indicated that for the three sampling periods, the prediction accuracies of LM-WEVC were always higher than those of LM-MEVC. The values of R(2) and RPD for LM-WEVC were increased by 8.15%–36.68%, and by 11.33%–59.40% respectively, while values of RMSE were reduced by 9.09%–37.5%, compared with those for LM-MEVC. These results demonstrate that LM-WEVC was effective in estimating LPC of rubber trees, and also confirmed our hypothesis that environmental factors unequally influenced LPC of rubber trees.