Biotope conservation in a Mediterranean agricultural land by incorporating crop modelling

Ahmet Cilek and Suha Berberoglu

Ecological Modelling, 2019, vol. 392, issue C, 52-66

Abstract: This research aims to develop a decision support system based on the conservation of biotopes within a Mediterranean agricultural landscape through the optimization of agricultural productivity. The first stage of this research includes mapping crop patterns using medium-resolution satellite sensor data recorded by LANDSAT and Sentinel-2 over Lower Seyhan Plain (LSP) located at the Eastern Mediterranean coast of Turkey between 2010 and 2016. In the second stage, crop productivity of three major crops namely winter wheat, corn, and cotton derived from image classification was modelled spatially and temporally through the CropSyst model. Additionally, the model was also revealed irrigation return flow from the drainage and the related N load. In the last stage, conservation principles and policies were recommended to diminish the detrimental impacts of agricultural fertilizer loads to the biotopes through drainage channels. The model results indicated that crop productivity of wheat, cotton, first crop corn, and second crop corn 21%, 28%, 47%, and 4% of total production in LSP, respectively. The average annual crop production of the wetlands region was 161,548 tons and equal to 16,5% of the total plain area. The largest amount of drainage water comes from cotton and second crop corn cultivation; the smallest amount comes from wheat and first crop corn cultivation. The largest amount of nitrogen remaining within the system was from second-crop corn, whereas, the smallest amount from wheat. It can be concluded that nitrogen fertilizer should be applied according to the soil characteristics, reduced by 5% for wheat, 10% for first crop corn, and 50% for second crop corn. As a result of this reduction fertilizer uptake efficiency will increase and N load to the wetlands will decrease.

Keywords: Wetlands; Remote sensing; Crop yield; CropSyst (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304380018303909
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:392:y:2019:i:c:p:52-66

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2018.11.008

Access Statistics for this article

Ecological Modelling is currently edited by Brian D. Fath

More articles in Ecological Modelling from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().