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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Beltsville, Maryland (BARC) » Beltsville Agricultural Research Center » Hydrology and Remote Sensing Laboratory » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #314358
Title: Assessing crop residue cover as scene moisture conditions change

Author
item Daughtry, Craig
item QUEMADA, MIGUEL - Collaborator

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/29/2015
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Crop residue or plant litter is the portion of a crop left in the field after harvest. Crop residues on the soil surface provide a first line of defense against water and wind erosion and reduce the amounts of soil, nutrients, and pesticides that reach streams and rivers. Thus, quantification of crop residue cover is required to evaluate the effectiveness and extent of conservation tillage practices. The standard technique to quantify crop residue cover is impractical for monitoring crop residue cover in many fields in a timely manner. Remote sensing approaches for assessing crop residue cover are often plagued by spatial and temporal variations in scene moisture conditions. Water in crop residues and soils attenuated the reflectance signal and reduced the accuracy of crop residue cover estimates. Our objectives were to: (1) assess the effects of soil and crop residue water contents on the remotely sensed estimates of crop residue cover and (2) propose a method to mitigate the effects of water content on remotely sensed estimates of crop residue cover. We started with reflectance spectra of diverse crops and soils acquired in controlled conditions in the laboratory and extended the analyses to agricultural fields with different crop residue covers and a wide range of moisture conditions. Reflectance of crop residues and soils decreased across all wavelengths as the relative water contents (RWC) increased. Several spectral water indices provided reliable indicators of scene moisture conditions for adjusting estimates of crop residue cover.