Investigating Plant Response to Soil Characteristics and Slope Positions in a Small Catchment

Tibor Zsigmond, Péter Braun, János Mészáros, István Waltner and Ágota Horel
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Tibor Zsigmond: Department of Soil Physics and Water Management, Institute for Soil Sciences, Centre for Agricultural Research, 1022 Budapest, Hungary
Péter Braun: Department of Soil Physics and Water Management, Institute for Soil Sciences, Centre for Agricultural Research, 1022 Budapest, Hungary
János Mészáros: Department of Soil Mapping and Environmental Informatics, Institute for Soil Sciences, Centre for Agricultural Research, 1022 Budapest, Hungary
István Waltner: Department of Water Management and Climate Adaption, Institute of Environmental Sciences, Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, 2100 Godollo, Hungary
Ágota Horel: Department of Soil Physics and Water Management, Institute for Soil Sciences, Centre for Agricultural Research, 1022 Budapest, Hungary

Land, 2022, vol. 11, issue 6, 1-18

Abstract: Methods enabling stakeholders to receive information on plant stress in agricultural settings in a timely manner can help mitigate a possible decrease in plant productivity. The present work aims to study the soil–plant interaction using field measurements of plant reflectance, soil water content, and selected soil physical and chemical parameters. Particular emphasis was placed on sloping transects. We further compared ground- and Sentinel-2 satellite-based Normalized Vegetation Index (NDVI) time series data in different land use types. The Photochemical Reflectance Index (PRI) and NDVI were measured concurrently with calculating the fraction of absorbed photochemically active radiation (fAPAR) and leaf area index (LAI) values of three vegetation types (a grassland, three vineyard sites, and a cropland with maize). Each land use site had an upper and a lower study point of a given slope. The NDVI, fAPAR, and LAI averaged values were the lowest for the grassland (0.293, 0.197, and 0.51, respectively), which showed the highest signs of water stress. Maize had the highest NDVI values (0.653) among vegetation types. Slope position affected NDVI, PRI, and fAPAR values significantly for the grassland and cropland ( p < 0.05), while the soil water content (SWC) was different for all three vineyard sites ( p < 0.05). The strongest connections were observed between soil physical and chemical parameters and NDVI values for the vineyard samples and the selected soil parameters and PRI for the grassland. Measured and satellite-retrieved NDVI values of the different land use types were compared, and strong correlations ( r = 0.761) between the methods were found. For the maize, the satellite-based NDVI values were higher, while for the grassland they were slightly lower compared to the field-based measurements. Our study indicated that incorporating Sentinel-derived NDVI can greatly improve the value of field monitoring and provides an opportunity to extend field research in more depth. The present study further highlights the close relations in the soil–plant–water system, and continuous monitoring can greatly help in developing site-specific climate change mitigating methods.

Keywords: land use sites; soil parameters; plant stress; spectral reflectance; NDVI; satellite imagery (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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