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Proximal Sensing of Penetration Resistance at a Permanent Grassland Site in Southern Finland
H. E. Ahrends, A. Lajunen
University of Helsinki

Proximal soil sensing allows for assessing soil spatial heterogeneity at a high spatial resolution. These data can be used for decision support on soil and crop agronomic management. Recent sensor systems are capable of simultaneously mapping several variables, such as soil electrical conductivity (EC), spectral reflectance, temperature, and water content, in real-time. In autumn 2021, we used a commercial soil scanner (Veris iScan+) to derive information on soil spatial variability for a permanent grassland field located at the Viikki Research Farm in Southern Finland. In this study the relation between mapped soil layer data and multi-temporal soil resistance profile data derived from hand-held penetrometer measurements is explored. Mean soil resistance was negatively and positively related with topsoil moisture and EC data, but temporal changes in soi resistance (difference in resistances between the different measurement dates) were more closely related to reflectance in the Red and the IR region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Results from the test field illustrate the potential but also the limitations of using multi-sensor data platforms at permanent grassland sites, i.e. the influence of biomass on spectral reflectance during the peak growing season but also the potential of using data for tracking soil characteristics that result from multiple properties which dynamically change over time.

Keyword: proximal soil scanning, soil spatial heterogeneity, electrical conductivity, soil penetration resistance