The potential of diffuse reflectance spectrometry (DRS) as a rapid integrated measure of soil quality for plant production was demonstrated using a comprehensive spectral library (0.35-2.5 ém) of African soils. In controlled soil management experiments, soil reflectance convolved to Landsat 5 wavelength ban-passes correlated with various soil quality attributes (rà range, 0.26-0.82) and crop yields (rà range, 0.30-0.80). Using 10nm wavelength bands, soil reflectance correlated well with basic properties (rà range, 0.66-0.90) of a wide diversity of soils. We show how DRs can be used with ground observations and Landsat 5 imagery to determine the spatial variation in soil properties. DRS could help with prediction of various soil functions, such as carbon sequestration potential.
Publication year
2000
Authors
Language
English
Keywords
soil, soil management, spectrometry
