AbstractsBiology & Animal Science

Application of biosolids and animal manures to agriculture fields has become important low-cost approach towards the improvement of soil fertility. However, nutrient and heavy metal concentration in biosolids and animal manure are a possible hazard for humans and the environment. Once satellite monitoring methods have been proven, multispectral remote sensing data would be an efficient and effective way to monitor the application of biosolids and animal manures to agriculture fields, especially since LANDSAT TM data have become free of charge from the U. S. Geological Survey's EROS Data Center. The objectives of this study are: 1) to examine the feasibility of using spectral ratio combination of R(7,5), R(5,4) and R(3,2), respectively, in blue, green and red to monitor sewage sludge, chicken manure, and cow manure application on agriculture fields; 2) to examine whether the Total Phosphorus (TP) algorithm developed on bare corn and soybean fields can be used map biosolids, cow-manure, and chicken-manure application on winter wheat stubble fields; 3) to create an inventory of biosolids application on winter wheat fields in Wood County Ohio from 1999 to 2008. For this study, Field 25B in Lucas County was selected for biosolids application, and 2 different fields in Cygnet of Wood County were selected for animal manure application. Both field based and laboratory spectral reflectance measurements, LANDSAT data, and chemical concentration analysis were employed in this study to verify the spectral ratio combination method and the TP algorithm. The result showed the dark-object-subtracted spectral ratio combination of R(7,5), R(5,4) and R(3,2) represented as blue, green and red, respectively, was robust for discrimination of untreated winter wheat fields, biosolids-applied winter wheat fields, chicken-manure applied fields and cow-manure applied agriculture fields. In this spectral ratio combination image, untreated winter wheat fields appear yellow; biosolids-applied fields appear gray, and biosolids-applied fields appear grayish purple when water, clouds, and vegetation masks are used; chicken manure appears dark red; and cow manure appears light brown. Even though the result showed that the TP algorithm was only effective in predicting the P concentration between 700-3000 mg/kg, it still can be used as a supplementary method to discriminate biosolids application and cow-manure application to agriculture fields. Therefore, the dark-object-subtracted spectral ratio combination of R(7,5), R(5,4) and R(3,2) represented as blue, green and red, respectively was used to define the untreated winter wheat fields and the biosolids-applied winter wheat fields in Wood County by minimum distance supervised classification with 3 standard deviations. The classification results finally were used to create the inventory of biosolids application on winter wheat fields in Wood County Ohio from 1999 to 2008.