Estimation of soil organic matter using proximal and satellite sensors after a wildfire in Mediterranean Croatia

Author(s):  
Iva Hrelja ◽  
Ivana Šestak ◽  
Igor Bogunović

<p>Spectral data obtained from optical spaceborne sensors are being recognized as a valuable source of data that show promising results in assessing soil properties on medium and macro scale. Combining this technique with laboratory Visible-Near Infrared (VIS-NIR) spectroscopy methods can be an effective approach to perform robust research on plot scale to determine wildfire impact on soil organic matter (SOM) immediately after the fire. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the ability of Sentinel-2 superspectral data in estimating post-fire SOM content and comparison with the results acquired with laboratory VIS-NIR spectroscopy.</p><p>The study is performed in Mediterranean Croatia (44° 05’ N; 15° 22’ E; 72 m a.s.l.), on approximately 15 ha of fire affected mixed <em>Quercus ssp.</em> and <em>Juniperus ssp.</em> forest on Cambisols. A total of 80 soil samples (0-5 cm depth) were collected and geolocated on August 22<sup>nd</sup> 2019, two days after a medium to high severity wildfire. The samples were taken to the laboratory where soil organic carbon (SOC) content was determined via dry combustion method with a CHNS analyzer. SOM was subsequently calculated by using a conversion factor of 1.724. Laboratory soil spectral measurements were carried out using a portable spectroradiometer (350-1050 nm) on all collected soil samples. Two Sentinel-2 images were downloaded from ESAs Scientific Open Access Hub according to the closest dates of field sampling, namely August 31<sup>st</sup> and September 5<sup>th </sup>2019, each containing eight VIS-NIR and two SWIR (Short-Wave Infrared) bands which were extracted from bare soil pixels using SNAP software. Partial least squares regression (PLSR) model based on the pre-processed spectral data was used for SOM estimation on both datasets. Spectral reflectance data were used as predictors and SOM content was used as a response variable. The accuracy of the models was determined via Root Mean Squared Error of Prediction (RMSE<sub>p</sub>) and Ratio of Performance to Deviation (RPD) after full cross-validation of the calibration datasets.</p><p>The average post-fire SOM content was 9.63%, ranging from 5.46% minimum to 23.89% maximum. Models obtained from both datasets showed low RMSE<sub>p </sub>(Spectroscopy dataset RMSE<sub>p</sub> = 1.91; Sentinel-2 dataset RMSE<sub>p</sub> = 0.99). RPD values indicated very good predictions for both datasets (Spectrospcopy dataset RPD = 2.72; Sentinel-2 dataset RPD = 2.22). Laboratory spectroscopy method with higher spectral resolution provided more accurate results. Nonetheless, spaceborne method also showed promising results in the analysis and monitoring of SOM in post-burn period.</p><p><strong>Keywords:</strong> remote sensing, soil spectroscopy, wildfires, soil organic matter</p><p><strong>Acknowledgment: </strong>This work was supported by the Croatian Science Foundation through the project "Soil erosion and degradation in Croatia" (UIP-2017-05-7834) (SEDCRO). Aleksandra Perčin is acknowledged for her cooperation during the laboratory work.</p>

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 450 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yi Liu ◽  
Yaolin Liu ◽  
Yiyun Chen ◽  
Yang Zhang ◽  
Tiezhu Shi ◽  
...  

In constructing models for predicting soil organic matter (SOM) by using visible and near-infrared (vis–NIR) spectroscopy, the selection of representative calibration samples is decisive. Few researchers have studied the inclusion of spectral pretreatments in the sample selection strategy. We collected 108 soil samples and applied six commonly used spectral pretreatments to preprocess soil spectra, namely, Savitzky–Golay (SG) smoothing, first derivative (FD), logarithmic function log(1/R), mean centering (MC), standard normal variate (SNV), and multiplicative scatter correction (MSC). Then, the Kennard–Stone (KS) strategy was used to select calibration samples based on the pretreated spectra, and the size of the calibration set varied from 10 samples to 86 samples (80% of the total samples). These calibration sets were employed to construct partial least squares regression models (PLSR) to predict SOM, and the built models were validated by a set of 21 samples (20% of the total samples). The results showed that 64−78% of the calibration sets selected by the inclusion of pretreatment demonstrated significantly better performance of SOM estimation. The average improved residual predictive deviations (ΔRPD) were 0.06, 0.13, 0.19, and 0.13 for FD, log(1/R), MSC, and SNV, respectively. Thus, we concluded that spectral pretreatment improves the sample selection strategy, and the degree of its influence varies with the size of the calibration set and the type of pretreatment.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hayfa Zayani ◽  
Youssef Fouad ◽  
Didier Michot ◽  
Zeineb Kassouk ◽  
Zohra Lili-Chabaane ◽  
...  

<p>Visible-Near Infrared (Vis-NIR) spectroscopy has proven its efficiency in predicting several soil properties such as soil organic carbon (SOC) content. In this preliminary study, we explored the ability of Vis-NIR to assess the temporal evolution of SOC content. Soil samples were collected in a watershed (ORE AgrHys), located in Brittany (Western France). Two sampling campaigns were carried out 5 years apart: in 2013, 198 soil samples were collected respectively at two depths (0-15 and 15-25 cm) over an area of 1200 ha including different land use and land cover; in 2018, 111 sampling points out of 198 of 2013 were selected and soil samples were collected from the same two depths. Whole samples were analyzed for their SOC content and were scanned for their reflectance spectrum. Spectral information was acquired from samples sieved at 2 mm fraction and oven dried at 40°C, 24h prior to spectra acquisition, with a full range Vis-NIR spectroradiometer ASD Fieldspec®3. Data set of 2013 was used to calibrate the SOC content prediction model by the mean of Partial Least Squares Regression (PLSR). Data set of 2018 was therefore used as test set. Our results showed that the variation ∆SOC<sub>obs</sub><sub></sub>obtained from observed values in 2013 and 2018 (∆SOC<sub>obs</sub> = Observed SOC (2018) - Observed SOC (2013)) is ranging from 0.1 to 25.9 g/kg. Moreover, our results showed that the prediction performance of the calibrated model was improved by including 11 spectra of 2018 in the 2013 calibration data set (R²= 0.87, RMSE = 5.1 g/kg and RPD = 1.92). Furthermore, the comparison of predicted and observed ∆SOC between 2018 and 2013 showed that 69% of the variations were of the same sign, either positive or negative. For the remaining 31%, the variations were of opposite signs but concerned mainly samples for which ∆SOCobs is less than 1,5 g/kg. These results reveal that Vis-NIR spectroscopy was potentially appropriate to detect variations of SOC content and are encouraging to further explore Vis-NIR spectroscopy to detect changes in soil carbon stocks.</p>


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (22) ◽  
pp. 3765
Author(s):  
Xitong Xu ◽  
Shengbo Chen ◽  
Zhengyuan Xu ◽  
Yan Yu ◽  
Sen Zhang ◽  
...  

Black soil in northeast China is gradually degraded and soil organic matter (SOM) content decreases at a rate of 0.5% per year because of the long-term cultivation. SOM content can be obtained rapidly by visible and near-infrared (Vis–NIR) spectroscopy. It is critical to select appropriate preprocessing techniques for SOM content estimation through Vis–NIR spectroscopy. This study explored three categories of preprocessing techniques to improve the accuracy of SOM content estimation in black soil area, and a total of 496 ground samples were collected from the typical black soil area at 0–15 cm in Hai Lun City, Heilongjiang Province, northeast of China. Three categories of preprocessing include denoising, data transformation and dimensionality reduction. For denoising, Svitzky-Golay filter (SGF), wavelet packet transform (WPT), multiplicative scatter correction (MSC), and none (N) were applied to spectrum of ground samples. For data transformation, fractional derivatives were allowed to vary from 0 to 2 with an increment of 0.2 at each step. For dimensionality reduction, multidimensional scaling (MDS) and locally linear embedding (LLE) were introduced and compared with principal component analysis (PCA), which was commonly used for dimensionality reduction of soil spectrum. After spectral pretreatments, a total of 132 partial least squares regression (PLSR) models were constructed for SOM content estimation. Results showed that SGF performed better than the other three denoising methods. Low-order derivatives can accentuate spectral features of soil for SOM content estimation; as the order increases from 0.8, the spectrum were more susceptible to spectral noise interferences. In most cases, 0.2–0.8 order derivatives exhibited the best estimation performance. Furthermore, PCA yielded the optimal predictability, the mean residual predictive deviation (RPD) and maximum RPD of the models using PCA were 1.79 and 2.60, respectively. The application of appropriate preprocessing techniques could improve the efficiency and accuracy of SOM content estimation, which is important for the protection of ecological and agricultural environment in black soil area.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jiří Zbíral ◽  
David Čižmár ◽  
Stanislav Malý ◽  
Elena Obdržálková

Abstract. Determining and characterizing soil organic matter (SOM) cheaply and reliably can help to support decisions concerning sustainable land management and climate policy. Glomalin, a glycoprotein produced by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, was recommended as a promising indicator of SOM quality. But extracting glomalin from and determining glomalin in soils using classical chemical methods is too complicated and time consuming and therefore limits the use of this parameter in large scale surveys. Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is a very rapid, non-destructive analytical technique that can be used to determine many constituents of soil organic matter. Representative sets of 84 different soil samples from arable land and grasslands and 75 forest soils were used to develop reliable NIRS calibration models for glomalin. One calibration model was developed for samples with a low content of glomalin (arable land and grasslands), the second for soils with a high content of glomalin (forest soils), and the third calibration model for all combined soil samples. Calibrations were validated and optimized by leave-one-sample-out-cross-validation (LOSOCV) and by the external validation using eight soil samples (arable land and grassland), and six soil samples (forest soils) not included in the calibration models. Two different calibration models were recommended. One model for arable and grassland soils and the second for forest soils. No statistically significant differences were found between the reference and the NIRS method for both calibration models. The parameters of the NIRS calibration model (RMSECV = 0,70 and R = 0,90 for soils from arable land and grasslands and RMSECV = 3,8 and R = 0,94 for forest soils) proved that glomalin can be determined directly in air-dried soils by NIRS with adequate trueness and precision.


2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruno Pedro Lazzaretti ◽  
Leandro Souza da Silva ◽  
Gerson Laerson Drescher ◽  
André Carnieletto Dotto ◽  
Darines Britzke ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT: Among the soil constituents, special attention is given to soil organic matter (SOM) and clay contents, since, among other aspects, they are key factors to nutrient retention and soil aggregates formation, which directly affect the crop production potential. The methods commonly used for the quantification of these constituents have some disadvantages, such as the use of chemical reactants and waste generation. An alternative to these methods is the near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) technique. The aim of this research is to evaluate models for SOM and clay quantification in soil samples using spectral data by NIRS. A set (n = 400) of soil samples previously analyzed by traditional methods were used to generate a NIRS calibration curve. The clay content was determined by the hydrometer method while SOM content was determined by sulfochromic solution. For calibration, we used the original spectra (absorbance) and spectral pretreatment (Savitzky-Golay smoothing derivative) in the following models: multiple linear regression (MLR), partial last squares regression (PLSR), support vector machine (SVM) and Gaussian process regression (GPR). The curve validation was performed with the SVM model (best performance in the calibration based on R² and RMSE) in two ways: with 40 random samples from the calibration set and another set with 200 new unknown samples. The soil clay content affects the predictive ability of the calibration curve to estimate SOM content by NIRS. Validation curves showed poorer performance (lower R² and higher RMSE) when generated from unknown samples, where the model tends to overestimate the lower levels and to underestimate the higher levels of clay and SOM. Despite the potential of NIRS technique to predict these attributes, further calibration studies are still needed to use this technique in soil analysis laboratories.


2017 ◽  
Vol 2017 ◽  
pp. 1-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jingzhe Wang ◽  
Tashpolat Tiyip ◽  
Jianli Ding ◽  
Dong Zhang ◽  
Wei Liu ◽  
...  

Soil organic matter (SOM) content is an important index to measure the level of soil function and soil quality. However, conventional studies on estimation of SOM content concerned about the classic integer derivative of spectral data, while the fractional derivative information was ignored. In this research, a total of 103 soil samples were collected in the Ebinur Lake basin, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, China. After measuring the Vis-NIR (visible and near-infrared) spectroscopy and SOM content indoor, the raw reflectance and absorbance were treated by fractional derivative from 0 to 2nd order (order interval 0.2). Partial least squares regression (PLSR) was applied for model calibration, and five commonly used precision indices were used to assess the performance of these 22 models. The results showed that with the rise of order, these parameters showed the increasing or decreasing trends with vibration and reached the optimal values at the fractional order. A most robust model was calibrated based on 1.8 order derivative of R, with the lowest RMSEC (3.35 g kg−1) and RMSEP (2.70 g kg−1) and highest Rc2 (0.92), Rp2 (0.91), and RPD (3.42 > 3.0). This model had excellent predictive performance of estimating SOM content in the study area.


Author(s):  
Sari Virgawati ◽  
Muhjidin Mawardi ◽  
Lilik Sutiarso ◽  
Sakae Shibusawa ◽  
Hendrik Segah ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTThe visible and near-infrared (Vis-NIR) diffuse reflectance spectroscopy has emerged as a rapid and low-cost tool for extensive investigation of soil properties. The objective of this research was to explore how significant the relationship between the soil spectral reflectance and soil organic matter (SOM) content. Some soil samples in Yogyakarta were taken for SOM content and spectroscopy measurement. The SOM was analyzed using Walkley and Black method, while the spectral reflectance was determined using ASD Field-spectrophotometer by scanned the sample with Vis-NIR spectrum. Pearson’s coefficient showed that there was a strong negative correlation between SOM and soil spectral of certain wavelengths. Soil with less organic matter content performed high reflectance. Keywords: Soil organic matter; Vis-NIR spectroscopy; soil reflectance; Pearson’s correlation coefficient.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 2313
Author(s):  
Elena Prudnikova ◽  
Igor Savin

Optical remote sensing only provides information about the very thin surface layer of soil. Rainfall splash alters soil surface properties and its spectral reflectance. We analyzed the impact of rainfall on the success of soil organic matter (SOM) content (% by mass) detection and mapping based on optical remote sensing data. The subject of the study was the arable soils of a test field located in the Tula region (Russia), their spectral reflectance, and Sentinel-2 data. Our research demonstrated that rainfall negatively affects the accuracy of SOM predictions based on Sentinel-2 data. Depending on the average precipitation per day, the R2cv of models varied from 0.67 to 0.72, RMSEcv from 0.64 to 1.1% and RPIQ from 1.4 to 2.3. The incorporation of information on the soil surface state in the model resulted in an increase in accuracy of SOM content detection based on Sentinel-2 data: the R2cv of the models increased up to 0.78 to 0.84, the RMSEcv decreased to 0.61 to 0.71%, and the RPIQ increased to 2.1 to 2.4. Further studies are necessary to identify how the SOM content and composition of the soil surface change under the influence of rainfall for other soils, and to determine the relationships between rainfall-induced SOM changes and soil surface spectral reflectance.


2012 ◽  
Vol 42 (11) ◽  
pp. 1953-1964 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irene Fernandez ◽  
Juan Gabriel Álvarez-González ◽  
Beatríz Carrasco ◽  
Ana Daría Ruíz-González ◽  
Ana Cabaneiro

Forest ecosystems can act as C sinks, thus absorbing a high percentage of atmospheric CO2. Appropriate silvicultural regimes can therefore be applied as useful tools in climate change mitigation strategies. The present study analyzed the temporal changes in the effects of thinning on soil organic matter (SOM) dynamics and on soil CO2 emissions in radiata pine ( Pinus radiata D. Don) forests. Soil C effluxes were monitored over a period of 2 years in thinned and unthinned plots. In addition, soil samples from the plots were analyzed by solid-state 13C-NMR to determine the post-thinning SOM composition and fresh soil samples were incubated under laboratory conditions to determine their biodegradability. The results indicate that the potential soil C mineralization largely depends on the proportion of alkyl-C and N-alkyl-C functional groups in the SOM and on the microbial accessibility of the recalcitrant organic pool. Soil CO2 effluxes varied widely between seasons and increased exponentially with soil heating. Thinning led to decreased soil respiration and attenuation of the seasonal fluctuations. These effects were observed for up to 20 months after thinning, although they disappeared thereafter. Thus, moderate thinning caused enduring changes to the SOM composition and appeared to have temporary effects on the C storage capacity of forest soils, which is a critical aspect under the current climatic change scenario.


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