Phytogeomorphology and Precision Agriculture While phytogeomorphology is a broad term that applies to the relationship between plants and terrain attributes in general (see Howard et al., (1985)), it is also very applicable to the aspect of precision agriculture that studies crop growth temporal and spatial variability within farm fields. There is already a volume of work, although they don't use the term phytogeomorphology specifically, that considers farm field terrain attributes as affecting crop yield and growth, Moore et al. (1991)Moore, I.D., Grayson, R.B., Ladson, A.R., 1991. Digital Terrain Modelling: A review of hydrological, geomorphological, and biological applications. Hydrological Processes, Vol. 5, 3-30 provide an early overview of the application of terrain features to precision agriculture, but one of the earliest references to this phenomenon in farming is that of Whittaker in 1967.Whittaker, R.H. 1967. Gradient analysis of vegetation, Biological Reviews, 42, 207-264 More recent work includes a six-year study of temporal and spatial yield stability over 11 years (Kaspar et al., (2003), and references therein),Kaspar, T.C, Colvin, T.S., Jaynes, B., Karlen, D.L., James, D.E, Meek, D.W., 2003. Relationship between six years of corn yields and terrain attributes. Precision Agriculture, 4, 87-101. and a detailed study of the same on a small patch farm in Portugal (and references therein).Marquas da Silva, J.R., and Silva, L.L., 2008. Evaluation of the relationship between maize yield spatial and temporal variability and different topographic attributes. Biosystems Engineering, 101, 183-190. This variability can be exploited to produce higher yields and reduce the environmental impact of farming - consequently returning a higher profit to the farmer in terms of higher overall yields and lesser amounts of inputs. The new science of Sustainable Intensification of AgricultureGarnett, T. et al., 2013. Sustainable Intensification in Agriculture: Premise and Policies. Science, Vol. 341, 33-34. which is addressing the need for higher yields from existing fields can be fulfilled by some of the practical applications of phytogeomorphology applied to precision agriculture.
Phytogeomorphology and Precision Agriculture While phytogeomorphology studies the relationship between plants and terrain attributes in general (see Howard et al., (1985)), it can also apply to precision agriculture by studying crop growth temporal and spatial variability within farm fields. There is already a volume of work, although they don't use the term phytogeomorphology specifically, that considers farm field terrain attributes as affecting crop yield and growth, Moore et al. (1991)Moore, I.D., Grayson, R.B., Ladson, A.R., 1991. Digital Terrain Modelling: A review of hydrological, geomorphological, and biological applications. Hydrological Processes, Vol. 5, 3-30 provide an early overview of the application of terrain features to precision agriculture, but one of the earliest references to this phenomenon in farming is that of Whittaker in 1967.Whittaker, R.H. 1967. Gradient analysis of vegetation, Biological Reviews, 42, 207-264 More recent work includes a six-year study of temporal and spatial yield stability over 11 years (Kaspar et al., (2003), and references therein),Kaspar, T.C, Colvin, T.S., Jaynes, B., Karlen, D.L., James, D.E, Meek, D.W., 2003. Relationship between six years of corn yields and terrain attributes. Precision Agriculture, 4, 87-101. and a detailed study of the same on a small patch farm in Portugal (and references therein).Marquas da Silva, J.R., and Silva, L.L., 2008. Evaluation of the relationship between maize yield spatial and temporal variability and different topographic attributes. Biosystems Engineering, 101, 183-190. This variability can be exploited to produce higher yields and reduce the environmental impact of farming - consequently returning a higher profit to the farmer in terms of higher overall yields and lesser amounts of inputs. The new science of Sustainable Intensification of AgricultureGarnett, T. et al., 2013. Sustainable Intensification in Agriculture: Premise and Policies. Science, Vol. 341, 33-34. which is addressing the need for higher yields from existing fields can be fulfilled by some of the practical applications of phytogeomorphology applied to precision agriculture.
R
is a broad term that applies to
studies
R
is also very applicable to the aspect of precision agriculture that studies
can also apply to precision agriculture by studying