Qualitative and quantitative soil characterization on an agricultural field using a portable shifted excitation Raman difference spectroscopy instrument

Abstract

Site-specific farmland management requires comprehensive information about the soil status to derive informed treatment decisions, e.g. for liming or fertilizer recommendations. Standard laboratory methods relying on sample collection have only limited ability to adequately capture the spatial variability of typical agricultural fields. Here, on-site analytical techniques with the potential to measure the soil properties on a substance-specific level and at the required spatial resolution could be very beneficial. Raman spectroscopy is a very promising technique for this purpose as it provides a molecular fingerprint of soil constituents. However, intrinsic soil fluorescence and daylight interference can be major issues masking characteristic Raman signals. Here, we apply an in-house developed portable shifted excitation Raman difference spectroscopy (SERDS) instrument based on a dual-wavelength diode laser emitting around 785 nm to effectively separate the Raman signals of soil from such interferences. SERDS investigations on a selected agricultural field in Germany demonstrate that the Raman spectroscopic signature of 9 soil minerals and organic carbon could successfully be separated from intense backgrounds. Using partial least squares regression against reference analyses, a successful prediction of the soil carbonate (R² = 0.86, root mean squared error of cross validation RMSECV = 2.49%) and soil organic carbon content (R² = 0.89, RMSECV = 0.32%) as important soil parameters is realized. The results obtained on-site with the portable instrument were confirmed by SERDS laboratory experiments of collected soil samples thus highlighting the capability and reliability of portable SERDS as promising and complementary tool for precision agriculture.