Predicting physical and chemical soil properties by reflectance spectroscopy
P 1.7 in Ecosystem Function
Laboratory examination of soil properties like total organic carbon, pH, cation exchange capacity, soil texture, bulk density or wetting parameters like contact angle are expensively in terms of costs and personnel required. Reflectance spectroscopy is a good alternative and a considerable improvement of field and laboratory measurement with repsect to time, costs and data quality and can be used for a wide range of applications. The objective of our project is to characterize flow patterns and dynamics in spruce forest soils, examined by field irrigation experiments and laboratory column experiments. A small scaled (< 2 cm), in situ measurement of flow pattern influencing parameters like soil texture, total organic carbon, pH, CEC and contact angle will be realized with reflectance spectroscopy in the soil profile. To achieve an accurate prediction, an estimation model has to be calibrated and validated for each parameter. The calibration results, terms of accuracy and problems with the method will be introduced in this poster.