Usefulness of near-infrared spectroscopy to determine biological and chemical soil properties: Importance of sample pre-treatment

• Published in: Soil biology & biochemistry 2008-05, Vol.40 (5), p.1178-1188
• Main Authors: Terhoeven-Urselmans, Thomas, Schmidt, Harald, Georg Joergensen, Rainer, Ludwig, Bernard
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Agronomy. Soil science and plant productions; Biochemistry and biology; Biological and medical sciences; carbon nitrogen ratio; Chemical, physicochemical, biochemical and biological properties; equations; Ergosterol; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; grain crops; grain yield; mathematical models; methodology; Microbial biomass; Microbiology; near-infrared spectroscopy; NIRS; nitrogen; organic production; phosphorus; Physics, chemistry, biochemistry and biology of agricultural and forest soils; Plant nutrition; potassium; pretreatment; regression analysis; soil analysis; soil biological properties; Soil biology; soil chemical properties; soil fertility; soil management; soil organic carbon; soil pH; soil respiration; soil sampling; Soil science; Yield prediction
• ISSN: 0038-0717; 1879-3428
• DOI: 10.1016/j.soilbio.2007.12.011

Near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (NIRS) is known for its inexpensiveness, rapidity and accuracy and may become a useful tool for the assessment of soil quality. Objectives were (i) to evaluate the ability of NIRS to predict several chemical and biological properties of organically managed arable soils as well as the properties of grain yield from winter cereals for a closed population and (ii) to test whether the use of field-moist and pre-treated (quick-freezing followed by freeze-drying and grinding) samples will generate similar results. One hundred and sixteen soil samples from nine organically managed farms from Germany sampled in 2005 and 2006 were used for this investigation. Spectra of the near-infrared region (including the visible range, 400–2500 nm) from field-moist (