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Title: Introduction to the JEEG Agricultural Geophysics special issue

Author
item Allred, Barry
item SMITH, BRUCE - Us Geological Survey (USGS)

Submitted to: Journal of Environmental & Engineering Geophysics
Publication Type: Other
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/15/2010
Publication Date: 9/15/2010
Citation: Allred, B.J., Smith, B.D. 2010. Introduction to the JEEG Agricultural Geophysics special issue. Journal of Environmental & Engineering Geophysics. 15(3):v-vi.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Recent advancements such as the availability of personal computers, technologies to store/process large amounts of data, the GPS, and GIS have now made geophysical methods practical for agricultural use. Consequently, there has been a rapid expansion of agricultural geophysics research just over the past fifteen years. One developing topic in agricultural geophysics is advancing the understanding of relationships between measurement parameters (e.g., interpreted electrical conductivity) to physical properties of soils and their interaction with water. Some of the exciting work being done is highlighted within this JEEG special agricultural geophysics issue. The first three articles in the issue are devoted to ground-penetrating radar topics that include characterization of soil water content variability and soil texture (Grote et al.), revised GPR soil suitability maps (Doolittle et al.), and detection of buried agricultural drainage pipes along with assessment of their functionality (Allred and Redman). The last five articles in the special issue consider applications and technologies associated with apparent soil electrical conductivity measurement using resistivity and EMI methods. The topics for these five articles on ECa measurement include: mapping depths to a soil argillic horizon (Sudduth et al.), comparison of soil sampling strategies based on ECa mapping for the purpose of characterizing spatial variability (Corwin et al.), a new inversion algorithm that can be used with EMI data to obtain soil electrical conductivity profiles (Santos et al.), precision monitoring of cattle feedlot manure and runoff (Eigenberg et al.), and evaluation of nutrient dynamics within the soil profile using EMI methods (Woodbury et al.). The wide variety of the articles presented in this special issue will hopefully give the readers a better understanding and appreciation regarding potential applications of near-surface geophysical methods in agriculture.