Abstract
Abstract. Winter cover crops have been shown to limit erosion and nutrient runoff from agricultural land. To promote their usage, the Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA) subsidizes farmers who plant cover crops. Conventional verification of cover crop planting and analysis of subsequent crop performance requires on-the-ground fieldwork, which is costly and labor intensive. In partnership with the MDA, NASA's DEVELOP program utilized imagery from Landsat 5, Landsat 8, and the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-2 to create a decision support tool for satellite-based monitoring of cover crop performance throughout Maryland. Our teams created CCROP, an interactive graphical user interface, in Google Earth Engine which analyzes satellite imagery to calculate the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) of fields across the state. Linear regression models were applied to convert NDVI to estimates of crop biomass and percent green ground cover, with measure of fit (R2) values ranging from 0.4 to 0.7. These crop metrics were implemented into an interactive filtering tool within CCROP which allows users to examine cover crop performance based on a variety of growing parameters. CCROP also includes a time series analysis routine for examining the progression of NDVI throughout the spring to help determine farmer-induced termination dates of cover crops. With this decision support tool, the MDA can analyze the effectiveness of cover crops throughout the state with reduced need to manually spot-check enrolled production fields, and can identify variables influencing overall cover crop performance to optimize implementation of their winter cover crop program via adaptive management approaches.
Highlights
1.1 Background InformationThe Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States, fed by a watershed spanning six states and encompassing 166,000 km2 of diverse terrestrial and marine ecosystems (Phillips, McGee, 2016)
The project teams used NASA Landsat archival imagery and European Space Agency (ESA) Sentinel-2 imagery. These data were imported from the Google Earth Engine (GEE) repository for various winter cover crop planting seasons lasting from August to May
These correlations varied depending on season and agronomic factor (Table 2)
Summary
The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States, fed by a watershed spanning six states and encompassing 166,000 km of diverse terrestrial and marine ecosystems (Phillips, McGee, 2016). Over 3,000 species of bivalves, birds, fish, and other organisms inhabit the watershed, and nearby coastal wetlands provide nurseries, food, and nesting sites (Chesapeake Bay Foundation, n.d.). The Chesapeake Bay generates substantial commercial benefits, hosting a multibillion dollar boating industry and fisheries capable of generating $2 billion per year (Maryland Department of Natural Resources, 2012). Excess nitrogen can induce eutrophication and subsequent hypoxia in coastal waters, threatening the prolific fisheries of the Chesapeake Bay (Boesch et al, 2001; Malone et al, 1993)
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