TY - JOUR
T1 - Using cosmic-ray neutron probes to monitor landscape scale soil water content in mixed land use agricultural systems
AU - Franz, Trenton E.
AU - Wahbi, Ammar
AU - Vreugdenhil, Mariette
AU - Weltin, Georg
AU - Heng, Lee
AU - Oismueller, Markus
AU - Strauss, Peter
AU - Dercon, Gerd
AU - Desilets, Darin
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 Trenton E. Franz et al.
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - With an ever-increasing demand for natural resources and the societal need to understand and predict natural disasters, soil water content (SWC) observations remain a critical variable to monitor in order to optimally allocate resources, establish early warning systems, and improve weather forecasts. However, routine agricultural production practices of soil cultivation, planting, and harvest make the operation and maintenance of direct contact point sensors for long-term monitoring challenging. In this work, we explore the use of the newly established Cosmic-Ray Neutron Probe (CRNP) and method to monitor landscape average SWC in a mixed agricultural land use system in northeast Austria. The calibrated CRNP landscape SWC values compare well against an independent in situ SWC probe network (MAE = 0.0286 m3/m3) given the challenge of continuous in situ monitoring from probes across a heterogeneous agricultural landscape. The ability of the CRNP to provide real-time and accurate landscape SWC measurements makes it an ideal method for establishing long-term monitoring sites in agricultural ecosystems to aid in agricultural water and nutrient management decisions at the small tract of land scale as well as aiding in management decisions at larger scales.
AB - With an ever-increasing demand for natural resources and the societal need to understand and predict natural disasters, soil water content (SWC) observations remain a critical variable to monitor in order to optimally allocate resources, establish early warning systems, and improve weather forecasts. However, routine agricultural production practices of soil cultivation, planting, and harvest make the operation and maintenance of direct contact point sensors for long-term monitoring challenging. In this work, we explore the use of the newly established Cosmic-Ray Neutron Probe (CRNP) and method to monitor landscape average SWC in a mixed agricultural land use system in northeast Austria. The calibrated CRNP landscape SWC values compare well against an independent in situ SWC probe network (MAE = 0.0286 m3/m3) given the challenge of continuous in situ monitoring from probes across a heterogeneous agricultural landscape. The ability of the CRNP to provide real-time and accurate landscape SWC measurements makes it an ideal method for establishing long-term monitoring sites in agricultural ecosystems to aid in agricultural water and nutrient management decisions at the small tract of land scale as well as aiding in management decisions at larger scales.
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U2 - 10.1155/2016/4323742
DO - 10.1155/2016/4323742
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84962289262
VL - 2016
JO - Applied and Environmental Soil Science
JF - Applied and Environmental Soil Science
SN - 1687-7667
M1 - 4323742
ER -