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ARS Home » Plains Area » Fargo, North Dakota » Edward T. Schafer Agricultural Research Center » Sunflower and Plant Biology Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #237558
Title: Evaluation of remote sensing to measure plant stress in Creeping Bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera L.) fairways

Author
item JOHNSEN, AARON - UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
item HORGAN, BRIAN - UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
item Hulke, Brent
item CLINE, VAN - TORO CO., BLOOMINGTON, MN

Submitted to: Crop Science
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 3/16/2009
Publication Date: 10/22/2009
Citation: Johnsen, A.R., Horgan, B.P., Hulke, B.S., Cline, V. 2009. Evaluation of Remote Sensing to Measure Plant Stress in Creeping Bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera L.) Fairways. Crop Science. 49:2261-2274.

Interpretive Summary: Turfgrass irrigation strategies must be clearly defined in response to increasing concerns over quality water availability. Water conservation may be achieved with technologies such as remote sensing. Remote sensing involves the use of scientific equipment with computers to uncover plant stress that, at the time, is not visible. An experiment was conducted over two years to show that plant stress can indeed be found prior to visual symptoms in a creeping bentgrass golf course fairway. Remote sensing equipment was able to find stress symptoms 0 to 48 hours prior to visual symptoms. Nitrogen deficiency did not influence the ability of the equipment to monitor stress.

Technical Abstract: Turfgrass irrigation strategies must be clearly defined in response to increasing concerns over quality water availability. Water conservation may be achieved with technologies such as remote sensing. The objectives of this research were to (i) correlate reflectance measurements from creeping bentgrass (Agrostis stolonifera L.) under stress with volumetric water content and turf quality measurements, (ii) determine if remote sensing can detect plant stress prior to visual observation, and (iii) explore the influence of nitrogen fertility on water stress detection. Four experiments were conducted in the 2006 and 2007 growing seasons on 3 m2 creeping bentgrass plots maintained under fairway conditions at the University of Minnesota agriculture campus. Treatments were irrigation at 20, 40, 60, and 80 percent of predicted evapotranspiration every 3-d on plots fertilized with 98 or 244 kg N ha-1 yr-1. Reflectance measurements from two remote sensors were more highly correlated (r = 0.73 to 0.91) than reflectance and turf quality (r = 0.42 to 0.71) or reflectance and volumetric water content (r = 0.28 to 0.64). Reflectance measurements detected water stress 0 to 48 hours prior to visual observation across all treatments and experiments. Nitrogen did not influence the ability to detect drought stressed turfgrass. Use of remote sensors to monitor and detect drought stress has the potential to improve turfgrass irrigation and ultimately conserve water.