Near infrared reflectance spectroscopy for analysis of turf soil profiles

The evaluation of sail profiles is important in turf management. To characterize soil physical and chemical properties, samples san be sent to a laboratory for analysis. This process fs time consuming and expensive, however. The use of near near infrared reflectance spectroscopy to predict soil physical and chemical properties vies investigated using turf soil profiles and compared with standard Laboratory techniques. Turf soil profiles from Michigan State University (East tensing) were scanned undisturbed and dried-ground with an NIRSystems 6500 monochromator (NIRSystems, Silver Springs, MD) by analyzing four depths each 1.25 cm thick. The reflectance measurements of monochromatic light were made From 400 to 2500 nm at 2-nm intervals, Computer-selected samples were analyzed in the laboratory for water content, organic matter, sand, silt, clay and some chemical properties. The explained variance ranged from 0.16 for total N to 0.93 for send, The organic matter, sand, silt, clay, P, Mg, and total N predictions were more accurate for the undisturbed samples than for the dried-ground samples. Expanding the Michigan State University database with turf soil profiles from Pennsylvania resulted ire lower accuracies but broadened the application range or Pie calibration. More research is needed to improve the prediction accuracy of expanded databases before near infrared reflectance spectroscopy can be used to determine soil properties from golf peens or fairways of different locations.