Species spectral signature: theory and practice of herbarium spectroscopy with portable NIR

4th ERBOT Norte 2026

Introduction

Welcome!😊

This course was designed to train students and professionals in the use of portable near-infrared (NIR) spectrometers. Over the course of the day, participants will explore the fundamentals of NIR spectroscopy and its applications to plant identification in a herbarium context.

The main analytical workflows will also be covered, both in theory and in practice, including spectra acquisition and quality control (for demonstration purposes), curation of spectral data and analyses applied to species discrimination.

Promotional flyer for the short course at ERBOT Norte 2026.

Course details

Where: ICB, Federal University of Pará (UFPA), Av. Perimetral, 2-224 - 66077-830 - Guamá, Belém, Pará, Brazil.

Date: April 26, 2026.

Target audience: Students and professionals involved in the herbarium/reference collection workflow who are interested in using portable spectroscopy for scientific research.

Number of places: 14 (in-person places).

Course load: 7 h (certificate of participation to be issued by the ERBOT Norte organizers).

Format: In-person course, with the theoretical class streamed live in a virtual environment and practical activities carried out in person.

Material: Slides and scripts will be made available directly to participants or via Download.

Schedule

Overview

The course activities will take place all day, from 8:00 am to 12:00 pm, with a lunch break, and from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm (local time in Belém).

⚠️ Note (lunch):
As it is a Sunday, the UFPA restaurants will not be open.
The event organizers have arranged a meal for R$ 17.00 per person (menu: mixed grill or breaded chicken fillet). Those interested should contact Jesiane [link removed], make the payment via PIX to this number and send the proof of payment.

Timeline

Morning (class given virtually by Flávia Durgante)

Fundamentals of near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy
Applications in herbaria and species identification
Introduction to spectral analyses

Access to the class: https://meet.jit.si/MinicursoERBOT2026

Complementary material: Video – Tour of the Electromagnetic Spectrum (NASA) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2p7FPFvu_j0

Afternoon (class given by Caroline Vasconcelos and Kaio Cunha)

Practical demonstration of the portable NIR

Presentation of the NIR-S-G1 device (InnoSpectra Corp.), accessories and app
Demonstration of spectra acquisition on herbarium specimens (reference samples)

Analyses in R
(using a previously provided dataset — https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15531968)

Installing and loading the required libraries
Importing spectral data
Visualizing and assessing the quality of the spectra
Preparing the data for analysis
Discriminant analysis (LDA) with Leave-One-Out (LOO) cross-validation
Performance evaluation (accuracy and confusion matrix)

Organizing and training team

Prof. Dr. Flávia Durgante (Coordinator of the SpectraPop/HerbSpectra-Amazônia Projects), MAUA/ATTO/INPA

Dr. Caroline Vasconcelos (HerbSpectra-Amazônia Project fellow), MAUA/INPA

MSc Kaio Cunha (HerbSpectra-Amazônia Project fellow), MAUA/INPA

Funding

This course is supported by the projects “Amazonian Spectral Herbaria Network: Spectroscopy and artificial intelligence for the automated identification of biodiversity in Amazonian herbaria - HerbSpectra-Amazônia”, funded by the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq), Public Call MCTI/CNPq No. 03/2025 - Pró-Amazônia (process no. 385465/2025-4); “Building a near-infrared spectral library to reveal new species of Ecclinusa (Sapotaceae, Chrysophylloideae) in South America”, funded by the International Association for Plant Taxonomy (IAPT, 2025 round); and “Popularization of the use of the Species Spectral Signature in the identification of trees in Sustainable Forest Management in the Amazon - SPECTRA POP”, funded by the Amazonas State Research Support Foundation (FAPEAM), Call No. 006/2024 - Mulher Faz Ciência (Process No. 01.02.016301.04984/2024-17). The course is also supported by the INPA Herbarium through the MCTI/FINEP/FNDCT Public Call No. 02/2016 – National Multi-User Centers.