The relationships between spectral reflectance and plot variables in a desert shrub community were studied by repeated observation as biomass was removed from 2·93m2plots. As a result of these repeated observations, interdependence effects were present in the data sets. The spectral/plot relationships were discovered to be weaker with the removal of this observational interdependence. Middle infrared reflectance (2·08–2·35μm) was found to account for more of the variation in the group of plot variables than did reflectance in the other spectral regions tested, and the variable of total moisture was best for explaining the variability of the spectral data.