Abstract
Extensive animal production in Iberian Peninsula is based on pastures, integrated within the important agro-silvo-pastoral system, named “montado” in Portugal and “dehesa” in Spain. Temperature and precipitation are the main driving climatic factors affecting agricultural productivity and, in dryland pastures, the hydrological cycle of soil, identified by soil moisture content (SMC), is the main engine of the vegetation development. The objective of this work was to evaluate the normalized difference water index (NDWI) based on Sentinel-2 imagery as a tool for monitoring pasture seasonal dynamics and inter-annual variability in a Mediterranean agro-silvo-pastoral system. Forty-one valid NDWI records were used between January and June 2016 and between January 2017 and June 2018. The 2.3 ha experimental field is located within the “Mitra” farm, in the South of Portugal. Soil moisture content, pasture moisture content (PMC), pasture surface temperature (Tir), pasture biomass productivity and pasture quality degradation index (PQDI) were evaluated in 12 satellite pixels (10 m × 10 m). The results show significant correlations (p < 0.01) between NDWI and: (i) SMC (R2 = 0.7548); (ii) PMC (R2 = 0.8938); (iii) Tir (R2 = 0.5428); (iv) biomass (R2 = 0.7556); and (v) PQDI (R2 = 0.7333). These findings suggest that satellite-derived NDWI can be used in site-specific management of “montado” ecosystem to support farmers’ decision making.
Highlights
Extensive animal production in Portugal, especially of cows and sheep, is based on pastures integrated within the context of “montado”, an agro-silvo-pastoral system, mainly under a sparse canopy of holm oak (Quercus ilex ssp. rotundifolia Lam.) [1]
These OAS provide a very interesting response in terms of crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and pasture quality degradation index (PQDI) estimates [10], they require the presence of a technician and running a mobile platform in repeated swats to adequately cover the field in order to obtain representative maps of the spatial variability of the parameters being measured
The mean and standard deviation were calculated for all parameters data
Summary
Extensive animal production in Portugal, especially of cows and sheep, is based on pastures integrated within the context of “montado”, an agro-silvo-pastoral system, mainly under a sparse canopy of holm oak (Quercus ilex ssp. rotundifolia Lam.) [1]. The two aforementioned channels used in NDVI can sense through different depths of vegetation canopies: near infrared channel can “see” through roughly eight leaf layers, while the red channel sees only one leaf layer or less because of the strong chlorophyll absorption [11] These OAS provide a very interesting response in terms of crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF) and pasture quality degradation index (PQDI) estimates [10], they require the presence of a technician and running a mobile platform in repeated swats to adequately cover the field in order to obtain representative maps of the spatial variability of the parameters being measured.
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