Spatiotemporal Patterns of Pasture Quality Based on NDVI Time-Series in Mediterranean Montado Ecosystem

Remote Sensing

Luis Paixão¹  Tiago Morais²  Ricardo Teixeira²  Tiago Domingos²  José Marques da Silva³  Shakib Shahidian³  João Serrano³ 

[1] AgroInsider Lda. (spin-off da Universidade de Évora), 7005-841 Évora, Portugal;MARETEC—Marine, Environment and Technology Centre, LARSyS, Instituto Superior Teécnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal;MED—Mediterranean Institute for Agriculture, Environment and Development, Instituto de Investigação e Formação Avançada, Universidade de Évora, Pólo da Mitra, Ap. 94, 7006-554 Évora, Portugal;

关键词: pasture quality degradation;    Montado;    remote sensing;    proximal sensing;    cloud effect;   

DOI  :  10.3390/rs13193820

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

The evolution of dryland pasture quality is closely related to the seasonal and inter-annual variability characteristic of the Mediterranean climate. This variability introduces great unpredictability in the dynamic management of animal grazing. The aim of this study is to evaluate the potential of two complementary tools (satellite images, Sentinel-2 and proximal optical sensor, OptRx) for the calculation of the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), to monitor in a timely manner indicators of pasture quality (moisture content, crude protein, and neutral detergent fiber). In two consecutive years (2018/2019 and 2019/2020) these tools were evaluated in six fields representative of dryland pastures in the Alentejo region, in Portugal. The results show a significant correlation between pasture quality degradation index (PQDI) and NDVI measured by remote sensing (R² = 0.82) and measured by proximal optical sensor (R² = 0.83). These technological tools can potentially make an important contribution to decision making and to the management of livestock production. The complementarity of these two approaches makes it possible to overcome the limitations of satellite images that result (i) from the interference of clouds (which occurs frequently throughout the pasture vegetative cycle) and (ii) from the interference of tree canopy, an important layer of the Montado ecosystem. This work opens perspectives to explore new solutions in the field of Precision Agriculture technologies based on spectral reflectance to respond to the challenges of economic and environmental sustainability of extensive livestock production systems.

【 授权许可】

Unknown