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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Columbia, Missouri » Cropping Systems and Water Quality Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #297796
Title: Mobile proximal soil sensing for crop productivity assessment and water management

Author
item Sudduth, Kenneth - Ken
item Vories, Earl
item THOMPSON, ALLEN - University Of Missouri
item Kitchen, Newell

Submitted to: ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/28/2013
Publication Date: 11/3/2013
Citation: Sudduth, K.A., Vories, E.D., Thompson, A.L., Kitchen, N.R. 2013. Mobile proximal soil sensing for crop productivity assessment and water management [abstract]. ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting. 410.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Soil sensing shows promise for efficient crop water management. Most soil sensors used in irrigation management are in-situ devices that provide temporally dense data. However, they are generally deployed at only a few locations and therefore do not adequately characterize spatial variability in soil properties, crop productivity, or soil water status. This presentation describes mobile proximal soil sensors that can efficiently create spatially dense datasets useful for mapping variability within fields. In particular, we focus on applications of bulk soil apparent electrical conductivity (ECa) sensing for quantifying spatial variability in soil texture and crop productivity and show how these data have been used for irrigation management. The added information provided by mobile proximal soil sensors has potential for improving crop water management in areas of spatially variable soils.