Estimating and mapping the soil total nitrogen contents in black soil region using hyperspectral images towards environmental heterogeneity

Abstract

Introduction: Fast and accurate estimation and spatial mapping of soil total nitrogen (TN) content is important for the development of modern precision agriculture, such as soil fertility monitoring and land reclamation decision-making. Hyperspectral remote sensing has been demonstrated to be an accurate real-time technique for rapid estimation and mapping of soil TN content.Methods: To solve the problem of poor accuracy and generalization of estimation models caused by soil environmental heterogeneity in estimating and mapping soil TN content using hyperspectral images, 502 soil samples were collected from a typical black soil area in Yushu City, Jilin Province, China, as a test area, and three sample grouping strategies were established by soil environmental variables (soil type, thickness of the black soil layer, and topographic factors), and Pearson correlation coefficient and competitive adaptive reweighted sampling algorithm were used to determine the TN characteristic bands of each sample set under different strategies. Based on the data characteristics of the sub-sample set, the local regression estimation model based on sample grouping was constructed using the CatBoost algorithm, and the estimation and distribution mapping of soil TN content was carried out.Results and Discussion: The results showed that after dividing the samples according to the differences in soil environmental factors, the characteristic information of the samples is more targeted, with more abundant numbers and distribution ranges of TN characteristic bands. Compared to the global regression estimation with all samples, the local regression based on the grouping of soil environment differences showed improved accuracy, with the local regression estimation model constructed with the ST-G strategy exhibiting the highest estimation accuracy (Rp2 = 0.839). The results can provide a reference for large-area soil properties mapping, and technical support for soil quality digitization and precision fertilization.