Exploratory analysis on the effect of heavy metal-contaminated soil on maize plants by visible and short-wave infrared spectroscopy

The study aims to investigate and assess the effects of three widespread heavy metals (HM), named Cr, Pb and Zn, on maize plants, carrying out an experiment in controlled conditions by visible (VIS) and short-wave infrared (SWIR) spectroscopy. Reflectance spectra of plant leaves were acquired by a portable spectroradiometer and processed by chemometric logics. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) demonstrated the possibility of distinguishing the effect on the maize plants of different concentrations of HM in soil.