|
|
|
 |
| NP-202 |
 |
|
Quantifying Landscape Factors Influencing Soil Productivity and the Environment.
National Program 202: Soil Resources and Management
Objective 1:
Develop measurement tools, and decision support tools for quantifying soil factors and processes influencing soil productivity. |
1.1. Spatially variable soil, subsurface, and landscape features can be quantified to characterize hydrologic characteristics affecting soil productivity. |
1.2. Soil nutrient status is available via direct measurement or via surrogate measurement of condition and character of plant response. |
Approach:
Sustained soil productivity and watershed conservation requires information for decision-making on the status of factors and processes affecting soil productivity and environmental quality. Production fields are now perceived as mosaics of homogeneous patches of variable crop response to soil factors (i.e. response zones) and landscape position. Thus, scale-appropriate quantification of spatial and temporal variability is now urgently needed. New approaches for acquiring and analyzing remote sensing data, scalable in situ measurements, and models offer potential solutions to the need for characterizing the variability of soil properties. Research will be conducted to develop technologies for quantifying the variability of soil hydrologic factors, and soil and plant nutrient status factors at scales that are appropriate for within-field management of heterogeneity. Surrogate indicators of soil hydrologic properties and landscape position will be assessed using analysis of yield data and remote sensing imagery. A new approach to pedotransfer functions will be pursued. Remote sensing of crop residue cover and nutrient stats will be investigated using image spectral reflectance signature analysis. Nutrient status and other indicators of crop response to soil productivity will be investigated via investigation of remote sensing image spatial/texture analysis of the patterns and spacing of groups of pixels. The research will result in new tools with a supporting knowledge base that will enable improved day-to-day land use management actions for nutrient management, conservation, and soil water management decisions and for decisions affecting development, implementation and enforcement of policy. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Last Modified: 12/20/2007
|
|
Printable Version
E-mail this page
