Hyperspectral analysis represents a promising technology for field phenotyping. Although this technique has particularly valuable application in the remote sensing of the level of nitrogen nutrition, canopy structure or crop health status, the open question is the reliability of the hyperspectral method for phenotyping of the leaf traits when applied in genebank or breeding accessions of wheat characterized by an enormous phenotypic diversity. To answer this, the hyperspectral field records as well as the subsequent leaf analyses were made in more than 100 wheat genotypes from the collection of Slovak National Genebank (NRFC-RIPP Piestany, Slovakia). The traits of the fully developed flag leaves (chlorophyll and carotenoid content per leaf area and per dry mass unit, chlorophyll a to b ratio, chlorophyll to carotenoid ratio, leaf thickness (measured as specific leaf weight, SLW, leaf area, SPAD value, etc.) were correlated with132 hyperspectral indices developed to estimate different properties of crop aboveground biomass. The genotypesprovided high diversity in all observed traits (thick vs. thin leaves, high vs. low chlorophyll concentration; very small vs.very large leaves), providing good background for correlation analyses. The results indicated that the commonly used spectral reflectance parameters, such as NDVI or EVI, had a low or moderate correlation with chlorophyll content andother leaf traits. On the other hand, we identified a group of parameters with a high correlation (MCARI, red edge parameters), which can be useful for the automated field phenotyping of wheat genetic resources. The study represents one of the initial steps of the program aimed at phenotyping of wheat germplasm, towards developing the methodological approaches to assess the genotypes, including traits related to adaptability, plasticity and tolerance to abiotic stress factors.

Acknowledgement. The study was supported by the national grants VEGA-1-0831-17 and APVV-15-0562.