Characterising the within-field scale spatial variation of nitrogen in a grassland soil to inform the efficient design of in-situ nitrogen sensor networks for precision agriculture

Shaw, Rory; Lark, R. M.; Williams, A. Prysor; Chadwick, David R.; Jones, Davey L.

doi:10.1016/j.agee.2016.06.004

Cited by 30 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…The water quality studies represented a mixture of pollution monitoring networks (e.g., Schneider et al, 2016) and agriculture focused applications (e.g., López Riquelme et al, 2009). Studies on earth systems were evenly distributed between those with a geo-hazard focus, such as landslides and earthquakes (Pumo et al, 2016;Finazzi and Fassò, 2017) and those with a focus on soil properties (e.g., Shaw et al, 2016). A further category was identified that represented studies focused on communication protocols or network architecture.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Low-Cost Environmental Sensor Networks: Recent Advances and Future Directions

et al. 2019

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The use of low-cost sensor networks (LCSNs) is becoming increasingly popular in the environmental sciences and the unprecedented monitoring data generated enable research across a wide spectrum of disciplines and applications. However, in particular, non-technical challenges still hinder the broader development and application of LCSNs. This paper reviews the development of LCSNs over the last 15 years, highlighting trends and future opportunities for a diverse range of environmental applications. We found air quality, meteorological and water-related networks were particularly well represented with few studies focusing on sensor networks for ecological systems. Furthermore, we identified bias toward studies that have direct links to human health, safety and livelihoods. These studies were more likely to involve downstream data analytics, visualizations, and multi-stakeholder participation through citizen science initiatives. However, there was a paucity of studies that considered sustainability factors for the development and implementation of LCSNs. Existing LCSNs are largely focused on detecting and mitigating events which have a direct impact on humans such as flooding, air pollution or geo-hazards, while these applications are important there is a need for future development of LCSNs for monitoring ecosystem structure and function. Our findings highlight three distinct opportunities for future research to unleash the full potential of LCSNs: (1) improvement of links between data collection and downstream activities; (2) the potential to broaden the scope of application systems and fields; and (3) to better integrate stakeholder engagement and sustainable operation to enable longer and greater societal impacts.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Low-Cost Environmental Sensor Networks: Recent Advances and Future Directions

et al. 2019

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“…), hereafter referred to as HF. The HF site has a temperate, oceanic climate, with average annual rainfall of 1250 mm and mean annual soil temperature at 10 cm depth of 11°C (Shaw et al 2016). The HF ley was established in 2014 with a Lolium multiflorum (Italian ryegrass), and Trifolium pratense (red clover) and Trifolium repens (white clover) mixture (75 and 25% respectively).…”

Section: Field Sites and Soil Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the benefits and wider costs of different N fertilisers for grassland agriculture

Carswell

Shaw

Hunt

et al. 2018

Archives of Agronomy and Soil Science

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Fertiliser nitrogen (N) is essential for maintaining agronomic outputs for our growing population. However, the societal, economic and environmental impacts of excess reactive N from fertiliser is rarely assessed. Here the agronomic, economic and environmental efficacy of three N-fertiliser sources, ammonium-nitrate (AN), urea (U), and inhibited-urea (IU; with NPBT) were evaluated at two grassland sites. Dry matter yield and herbage quality were measured at each silage-cut. Additionally, NH 3-N and N 2 ON losses were measured and used to calculate the effective N source cost and externality costs, which account for associated environmental and societal impacts. We found no effect of different N sources on yield or herbage quality. However, NH 3-N emissions were significantly reduced under the IU treatment, by 48-65%. No significant differences in cumulative N 2 O emissions were observed. Incorporating externality costs increased fertiliser prices by 1.23-2.36, 6.51-16.4, and 3.17-4.17 times the original cost, for AN, U and IU, respectively, transforming U from the cheapest, to the most expensive of the N sources examined. However, with no apparent yield differences between N-fertiliser sources there is no economic incentive for the land-manager to use the more environmentally and socially acceptable option, unless externality costs are incorporated into fertiliser prices at the point of sale.

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“…It is generally accepted that developing precision agriculture, based on real-time monitoring of soil fertility, crop growth, and environmental change to increase grain production, plays a vital role in alleviating the pressure of grain demand [3,4]. As a crucial component of precision agriculture, precision management of soil nutrients requires real-time monitoring of soil nutrients by using simple, rapid, and inexpensive detection methods [5]. However, the conventional methods involving routine digestion, titration, and other preparatory procedures are generally labor-intensive, as well as time-and cost-consuming [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fast and Simultaneous Determination of Soil Properties Using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS): A Case Study of Typical Farmland Soils in China

et al. 2019

Soil Systems

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Accurate management of soil nutrients and fast and simultaneous acquisition of soil properties are crucial in the development of sustainable agriculture. However, the conventional methods of soil analysis are generally labor-intensive, environmentally unfriendly, as well as time- and cost-consuming. Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is a “superstar” technique that has yielded outstanding results in the elemental analysis of a wide range of materials. However, its application for analysis of farmland soil faces the challenges of matrix effects, lack of large-scale soil samples with distinct origin and nature, and problems with simultaneous determination of multiple soil properties. Therefore, LIBS technique, in combination with partial least squares regression (PLSR), was applied to simultaneously determinate soil pH, cation exchange capacity (CEC), soil organic matter (SOM), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), total potassium (TK), available phosphorus (AP), and available potassium (AK) in 200 soils from different farmlands in China. The prediction performances of full spectra and characteristic lines were evaluated and compared. Based on full spectra, the estimates of pH, CEC, SOM, TN, and TK achieved excellent prediction abilities with the residual prediction deviation (RPDV) values > 2.0 and the estimate of TP featured good performance with RPDV value of 1.993. However, using characteristic lines only improved the predicted accuracy of SOM, but reduced the prediction accuracies of TN, TP, and TK. In addition, soil AP and AK were predicted poorly with RPDV values of < 1.4 based on both full spectra and characteristic lines. The weak correlations between conventionally analyzed soil AP and AK and soil LIBS spectra are responsible for the poor prediction abilities of AP and AK contents. Findings from this study demonstrated that the LIBS technique combined with multivariate methods is a promising alternative for fast and simultaneous detection of some properties (i.e., pH and CEC) and nutrient contents (i.e., SOM, TN, TP, and TK) in farmland soils because of the extraordinary prediction performances achieved for these attributes.

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Characterising the within-field scale spatial variation of nitrogen in a grassland soil to inform the efficient design of in-situ nitrogen sensor networks for precision agriculture

Cited by 30 publications

References 60 publications

Low-Cost Environmental Sensor Networks: Recent Advances and Future Directions

Low-Cost Environmental Sensor Networks: Recent Advances and Future Directions

Assessing the benefits and wider costs of different N fertilisers for grassland agriculture

Fast and Simultaneous Determination of Soil Properties Using Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS): A Case Study of Typical Farmland Soils in China

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