Estimating Pasture Quality of Fresh Vegetation Based on Spectral Slope of Mixed Data of Dry and Fresh Vegetation—Method Development

Remote Sensing

Rachel Lugassi⁴  Alexandra Chudnovsky³  Eli Zaady¹  Levana Dvash²  Naftaly Goldshleger⁴  Eyal Ben-Dor⁵  Parth Sarathi Roy⁵ 

[1] Department of Natural Resources, Agricultural Research Organization, Gilat Research Center, Mobile Post, Negev 8528000, Israel; E-Mail:;Department of Natural Resources and Agronomy, Institute of Field and Garden Crops, Agricultural Research Organization, The Volcani Center, Bet Dagan 5025000, Israel; E-Mail:;Department of Geography and Human Environment, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv 6997801, Israel; E-Mail:;Civil Engineering Faculty, Ariel University, Ariel 4070000, Israel; E-Mail:;Civil Engineering Faculty, Ariel University, Ariel 4070000, Israel; E-Mail

关键词: reflectance spectroscopy;    spectral slope;    pasture quality;    crude protein (CP);    neutral detergent fiber (NDF);    fresh vegetation;   

DOI  :  10.3390/rs70608045

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

The main objective of the present study was to apply a slope-based spectral method to both dry and fresh pasture vegetation. Differences in eight spectral ranges were identified across the near infrared-shortwave infrared (NIR-SWIR) that were indicative of changes in chemical properties. Slopes across these ranges were calculated and a partial least squares (PLS) analytical model was constructed for the slopes vs. crude protein (CP) and neutral detergent fiber (NDF) contents. Different datasets with different numbers of fresh/dry samples were constructed to predict CP and NDF contents. When using a mixed-sample dataset with dry-to-fresh ratios of 85%:15% and 75%:25%, the correlations of CP (R² = 0.95, in both) and NDF (R² = 0.84 and 0.82, respectively) were almost as high as when using only dry samples (0.97 and 0.85, respectively). Furthermore, satisfactory correlations were obtained with a dry-to-fresh ratio of 50%:50% for CP (R² = 0.92). The results of our study are especially encouraging because CP and NDF contents could be predicted even though some of the selected spectral regions were directly affected by atmospheric water vapor or water in the plants.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.