Evaluation of nitrogen status in a wheat crop using unmanned aerial vehicle images

ABSTRACT The excessive use of N in agriculture has created various environmental and economic problems. Remote sensing and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) are feasible solutions to infer the status of a crop and enable a better management during the growing season. The objective of this study was to correlate experimental N content and wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) crop aboveground biomass data with vegetation indices estimated using UAV images. In this study, the N nutrition index and N dilution curve were used as indicators of the state of plant N; input variables to estimate these indicators were the N content and aboveground biomass. Four flight campaigns were conducted at different phenological stages of a wheat crop and seven N doses were evaluated. A linear relationship of blue normalized difference vegetation index (BNDVI) and green normalized difference vegetation index (GNDVI) with aboveground biomass and N content was identified. BNDVI and biomass demonstrated high R2 during boots swollen and end of anthesis growth stages (0.62 and 0.68, respectively), while GNDVI showed the highest R2 during the ear half emerged and beginning of anthesis growth stages (0.84 and 0.79, respectively). For N content estimation, GNDVI showed a higher correlation than BNDVI, and the adjustment curve showed an R2 up to 0.81 only for the last flight (end of anthesis), BNDVI showed an R2 of 0.78. Remote sensing and vegetation indices estimated from UAV images can be reliably used to estimate N content and wheat biomass, contributing to knowing the crop N status.

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Gordillo-Salinas,Víctor Manuel, Flores-Magdaleno,Héctor, Ortiz-Solorio,Carlos Alberto, Arteaga-Ramírez,Ramón
Format: Digital revista
Language:English
Published: Instituto de Investigaciones Agropecuarias, INIA 2021
Online Access:http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0718-58392021000300408
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