Weeds, worms and geostatistics

B - Book chapters etc edited externally

Webster, R. 2010. Weeds, worms and geostatistics. in: Oliver, M. A. (ed.) Geostatistical applications for precision agriculture Springer, Berlin. pp. 221-241

AuthorsWebster, R.
EditorsOliver, M. A.
Abstract

Weeds and plant-parasitic nematodes occur in patches in agricultural fields. Farmers can control them with chemicals. They can do so precisely and prevent competition (from weeds) and predation (by nematodes) provided they know where the pests are early in the lives of their crops or before sowing or planting them. Standard geostatistical methods have been used successfully to analyse counts of both weed seedlings and nematodes in the soil and to map their distributions from kriged estimates. The application is technologically sound. The most serious obstacle to its application in farming is that sampling must be intense, with spacings between sampling points of 20–40 m. This means that the cost of sampling and counting the pests is greater than the savings from not applying herbicides or nematicides. Only for potatoes is the effort and cost of estimating the burdens of the parasitic cyst nematodes of the genusGlobodera justified economically. For precise control of weeds proximal sensing at the seedling stage seems more promising.

Page range221-241
Year of Publication2010
Book titleGeostatistical applications for precision agriculture
PublisherSpringer, Berlin
ISBN978-90-481-9133-8
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-9133-8_9
FunderBiotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
Funder project or codeCentre for Mathematical and Computational Biology (MCB)
Complex spatial variation of environmental variables: sampling, prediction and interpretation
Open accessPublished as non-open access
Output statusPublished
Publication dates
Online16 Jun 2010
Copyright licensePublisher copyright

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