In precision agriculture geoelectrical methods have shown their capability to detect spatial variation of important physico-chemical soil parameters in an efficient way. Nevertheless, relationships between the electrical parameters (electrical conductivity or resistivity) and other soil properties are not always consistent over different fields. This can, to some extent, be due to the characteristics of instruments used for soil mapping. However, a limited amount of research has addressed this issue. In this study, seven instruments for mobile mapping (continuous geoelectrical measurements) available on the market were tested (ARP 03, CM-138, EM38, EM38-DD, EM38-MK2, OhmMapper and Veris 3100). Instruments were employed on a sandy site in north-east Germany. Measurements were compared to a profile, which has been investigated with a high accuracy reference. Additional investigations were conducted concerning the influences of temperature drift, seasonal variations and soil properties on soil EC. Marked differences between the instruments were found with respect to depth of investigation, accuracy and handling that have to be taken into account when geoelectrical surveys are planned or interpreted. Regarding depth of investigation and robustness of the measurements, ARP 03 and Veris 3100 seem to be the most suitable instruments for precision agriculture.
The objective of this study was to evaluate the distribution of soil strength (measured as cone index, CI) along a 600 m transect and to determine the soil loosening depth necessary to eliminate zones with soil strengths exceeding a threshold value down to a depth of 0.6 m. The transect was located at a site in a glacial drift area which was characterised by sandy deposits overlying boulder clay. A tractor-mounted multi-penetrometer array consisting of four hydraulically driven single vertical penetrometers was used to determine CI at 1-m sampling intervals as a measure of penetration resistance. The spatial fluctuation of the CI readings in general and that of repeatedly averaged readings along the transect was examined. Furthermore, the relationships between the penetration resistance of several soil layers and the relationships between the CI of single penetrometers were identified. Averaged CI values over 5-m intervals were used to determine the depth of soil loosening required. By using various data sub-sets based on the averaged data of the four array mounted penetrometers and simulating several different sampling intervals, treatment intervals and threshold values of soil strength, a sampling interval of about 10 m proved to be sufficiently accurate to determine the loosening depth required.
The emergence of a new sensor technology based on the use of ion‐selective membranes provides an increasing number of opportunities for on‐the‐go field measurements of soil nutrients and soil pH. In the future, on‐the‐go sensing should provide a cost‐effective monitoring of heterogeneous soils with high sampling resolution. It is suitable for site‐specific management because it can be focused on the spatial representativity of observation. This study evaluates the on‐the‐go‐sensing sampling design by comparing it with a standard approach to soil sampling for soil pH and the base nutrients P, K, and Mg under local field conditions in Germany. Soil samples were taken in two test sites at a resolution and in a manner as if they were sampled with an on‐the‐go sensing system and were compared with soil samples taken at a coarser resolution and with standard methods. In general, a higher variability was observed among the on‐the‐go samples due to their smaller sample support. The finer sampling resolution of the on‐the‐go design improved field‐scale semivariogram‐analysis results, identifying the spatial structures for soil pH, P, and Mg clearly. In addition, kriged maps of these soil parameters had predominantly higher estimation accuracies. However, the on‐the‐go samples were strongly influenced by the small‐scale variability of K in one of the test sites. This variability increased the kriging standard deviation for K by 50% compared with standard sampling design. Despite of this problem, the on‐the‐go‐sensing sampling design revealed field‐scale spatial variability for base nutrient status more accurately. Except for K, the mean absolute error of fertilizer‐application maps was reduced when using the on‐the‐go sample design in comparison with the standard sample design (Ca: 210/268 kg ha–1, P: 2.85/6.75 kg ha–1, K: 13.7/6.0 kg ha–1, Mg 5.7/6.8 kg ha–1). This will reduce over‐ and underfertilization using variable‐rate fertilizer‐application systems. In the future, it will be of interest if real on‐the‐go soil‐sensor measurements exhibit the same variability behavior addressed here or if results will differ substantially.
Yield maps derived from yield mapping systems are often erroneous not only due to limitations in measuring the yield precisely but due to insufficient consideration of the requirements of yield mapping systems in practice as well. Aerial images of cultivated crop fields at an advanced growth stage frequently provide a spatial pattern similar to that of yield maps. Therefore, the possibility of generating a yield map using aerial images and measured yield data of a few tracks was examined for a period of 2 years in two fields grown with cereals. Yield zones based on Visible Atmospherically Resistant Index (VARI) values were compared with yield zones based on measured yield data of the whole field. About half of the grid cells of a field were allocated to the same yield zones irrespective of the mode of yield determination. Using the Kruskal-Wallis test, the data sub-sets of measured yield within the yield zones based on the VARI values differed significantly for all tested yield zones. As a result, the approach was successful in the case of these experimental sites.
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