ARS | Publication request: DEVELOPMENT OF FIELD SCALE CALIBRATIONS OF NEAR INFRARED AND MID INFRARED SPECTRA FOR ACCURATE ASSESSMENT OF THE SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF SOIL PROPERTIES WITHIN AGRICULTURAL LANDSCAPES

Submitted to: International Symposium on Soil and Plant Analysis
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: November 15, 2004
Publication Date: November 15, 2004
Citation: McCarty, G.W., Reeves III, J.B. 2004. Development of field scale calibrations of near infrared and mid infrared spectra for accurate assessment of the spatial distrubtion of soil porperties within agricultural landscapes [abstract}. Proceedings of the International Symposium on Soil and Plant Analysis. 2004 CDROM.

Technical Abstract: Data intensive technologies such as precision agriculture require new approaches for acquisition of landscape data. We compared the ability of near infrared (NIR) and mid infrared (MIR) spectroscopy for field-scale acquisition of soil fertility parameters. We found that both NIR and MIR formed good calibrations for organic carbon, total N and soil texture. To varying degrees of precision, these regions also calibrated for pH and exchangeable Ca, Mg and K. Exchangeable P did not form useful calibrations in either spectral region. In all cases, MIR calibrations were better than those formed in the NIR region. Test of calibrations based on one third of the samples used to predict the remaining samples demonstrated the strategy of developing field-scale calibrations for the spectral regions by chemical analysis of a small subset of samples for the prediction of large numbers of samples needed to accurately map the spatial distribution of soil properties within agricultural landscapes. These studies demonstrate the utility of infrared spectral approaches for generating the spatial data needed to implement precision agriculture technology.