Prediction of total carbon, total nitrogen, and pH of organic materials using visible near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy

Citation

St. Luce, M., Ziadi, N., Gagnon, B., Lévesque, V. (2017). Prediction of total carbon, total nitrogen, and pH of organic materials using visible near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy. Canadian Journal of Soil Science, [online] 98(1), 175-179. http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/cjss-2017-0109

Plain language summary

Visible near infrared reflectance spectroscopy (VNIRS) was used to characterize a set of organic materials. The VNIRS prediction was excellent for total nitrogen content, good for total carbon content but poor for pH. This study showed that VNIRS can be used as a rapid, cost-effective, non-destructive and environmentally-friendly technique to characterize organic materials before they are applied to soils.

Abstract

We used visible near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (VNIRS) to characterize a set of organic materials (n = 75). Good predictions for total carbon, excellent predictions for total nitrogen, but poor predictions for pH were found. This preliminary study showed that VNIRS could rapidly characterize organic materials before soil application.