Estimating plant nitrogen concentration (PNC) has been conducted using vegetation indices (VIs) from UAV-based imagery, but color features have been rarely considered as additional variables. In this study, the VIs and color moments (color feature) were calculated from UAV-based RGB images, then partial least square regression (PLSR) and random forest regression (RF) models were established to estimate PNC through fusing VIs and color moments. The results demonstrated that the fusion of VIs and color moments as inputs yielded higher accuracies of PNC estimation compared to VIs or color moments as input; the RF models based on the combination of VIs and color moments (R2 ranging from 0.69 to 0.91 and NRMSE ranging from 0.07 to 0.13) showed similar performances to the PLSR models (R2 ranging from 0.68 to 0.87 and NRMSE ranging from 0.10 to 0.29); Among the top five important variables in the RF models, there was at least one variable which belonged to the color moments in different datasets, indicating the significant contribution of color moments in improving PNC estimation accuracy. This revealed the great potential of combination of RGB-VIs and color moments for the estimation of rice PNC.

No abstract

No abstract

The accurate estimation of the key growth indicators of rice is conducive to rice production, and the rapid monitoring of these indicators can be achieved through remote sensing using the commercial RGB cameras of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). However, the method of using UAV RGB images lacks an optimized model to achieve accurate qualifications of rice growth indicators. In this study, we established a correlation between the multi-stage vegetation indices (VIs) extracted from UAV imagery and the leaf dry biomass, leaf area index, and leaf total nitrogen for each growth stage of rice. Then, we used the optimal VI (OVI) method and object-oriented segmentation (OS) method to remove the noncanopy area of the image to improve the estimation accuracy. We selected the OVI and the models with the best correlation for each growth stage to establish a simple estimation model database. The results showed that the OVI and OS methods to remove the noncanopy area can improve the correlation between the key growth indicators and VI of rice. At the tillering stage and early jointing stage, the correlations between leaf dry biomass (LDB) and the Green Leaf Index (GLI) and Red Green Ratio Index (RGRI) were 0.829 and 0.881, respectively; at the early jointing stage and late jointing stage, the coefficient of determination (R2) between the Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Modified Green Red Vegetation Index (MGRVI) was 0.803 and 0.875, respectively; at the early stage and the filling stage, the correlations between the leaf total nitrogen (LTN) and UAV vegetation index and the Excess Red Vegetation Index (ExR) were 0.861 and 0.931, respectively. By using the simple estimation model database established using the UAV-based VI and the measured indicators at different growth stages, the rice growth indicators can be estimated for each stage. The proposed estimation model database for monitoring rice at the different growth stages is helpful for improving the estimation accuracy of the key rice growth indicators and accurately managing rice production.

Soil organic matter (SOM), as the greatest carbon storage in the terrestrial environment, is inextricably related to the global carbon cycle and global climate change. Accurate estimation and mapping of SOM content are crucial for guiding agricultural output and management, as well as controlling the climate issue. Traditional chemical analysis is unable to satisfy the dynamic estimation of SOM due to its low timeliness. Remote and proximal sensing have significant advantages in terms of ease of use, estimation accuracy, and geographical resolution. In this study, we developed a framework based on machine learning to estimate SOM with high accuracy and resolution using Fourier mid-infrared attenuation total reflectance spectroscopy (FTIR-ATR), Sentinel-2 images, and DEM derivatives. This framework’s performance was evaluated on a regional scale using 245 soil samples from northeast China. Results indicated that the calibration size could be shrunk to 50% while achieving a fair prediction performance for SOM content. The Lasso, partial least squares (PLS), support vector regression (SVR), and convolutional neural networks (CNN) performed well in predicting SOM from FTIR-ATR spectra, and the performance was enhanced further by using Sentinel-2 images and DEM derivates. The PLS, SVR, and CNN models created SOM maps with higher spatial resolution and variation than the Kriging approach. The PLS and SVR models provided enough variety and were more realistic in the local SOM map, making them usable at the field scale, and the suggested framework took a fresh look at high-resolution SOM mapping.

The rapid and accurate acquisition of rice growth variables using unmanned aerial system (UAS) is useful for assessing rice growth and variable fertilization in precision agriculture. In this study, rice plant height (PH), leaf area index (LAI), aboveground biomass (AGB), and nitrogen nutrient index (NNI) were obtained for different growth periods in field experiments with different nitrogen (N) treatments from 2019–2020. Known spectral indices derived from the visible and NIR images and key rice growth variables measured in the field at different growth periods were used to build a prediction model using the random forest (RF) algorithm. The results showed that the different N fertilizer applications resulted in significant differences in rice growth variables; the correlation coefficients of PH and LAI with visible-near infrared (V-NIR) images at different growth periods were larger than those with visible (V) images while the reverse was true for AGB and NNI. RF models for estimating key rice growth variables were established using V-NIR images and V images, and the results were validated with an R2 value greater than 0.8 for all growth stages. The accuracy of the RF model established from V images was slightly higher than that established from V-NIR images. The RF models were further tested using V images from 2019: R2 values of 0.75, 0.75, 0.72, and 0.68 and RMSE values of 11.68, 1.58, 3.74, and 0.13 were achieved for PH, LAI, AGB, and NNI, respectively, demonstrating that RGB UAS achieved the same performance as multispectral UAS for monitoring rice growth.

No abstract

No abstract