Improvement of spatial estimation for soil organic carbon stocks in Yuksekova plain using Sentinel 2 imagery and gradient descent-boosted regression tree.

Carbon sequestration in earth surface is higher than the atmosphere, and the amount of carbon stored in wetlands is much greater than all other land surfaces. The purpose of this study was to estimate soil organic carbon stocks (SOCS) and investigate spatial distribution pattern of Yuksekova wetlands and surrounding lands in Hakkari province of Turkey using machine learning and remote sensing data. Disturbed and undisturbed soil samples were collected from 10-cm depth in 50 locations differed with land use and land cover. Vegetation, soil, and moisture indices were calculated using Sentinel 2 Multispectral Sensor Instrument (MSI) data. Significant correlations (p≤0.01) were obtained between the indices and SOCS; thus, the remote sensing indices (ARVI 0.43, BI -0.43, GSI -0.39, GNDI 0.44, NDVI 0.44, NDWI 0.38, and SRCI 0.51) were used as covariates in multi-layer perceptron neural network (MLP) and gradient descent-boosted regression tree (GBDT) machine learning models. Mean absolute error, root mean square error, and mean absolute percentage error were 3.94 (Mg C ha -1), 6.64 (Mg C ha-1), and 9.97%, respectively. The simple ratio clay index (SRCI), which represents the soil texture, was the most important factor in the SOCS estimation variance. In addition, the relationship between SRCI and Topsoil Grain Size Index revealed that topsoil clay content is a highly important parameter in spatial variation of SOCS. The spatial SOCS values obtained using the GBDT model and the mean SOCS values of the CORINE land cover classes were significantly different. The land cover has a significant effect on SOC in Yuksekova plain. The mean SOCS for continuously ponded fields was 45.58 Mg C ha-1, which was significantly different from the mean SOCS of arable lands. The mean SOCS in arable lands, with significant areas of natural vegetation, was 50.22 Mg C ha-1 and this amount was significantly higher from the SOCS of other land covers (p<0.01). The wetlands had the highest SOCS (61.46 Mg C ha-1), followed by the lands principally occupied by natural vegetation and used as rangelands around the wetland (50.22 Mg C ha-1). Environmental conditions had significant effect on SOCS in the study area. The use of remote sensing indices instead of using single bands as estimators in the GBDT algorithm minimized radiometric errors, and reliable spatial SOCS information was obtained by using the estimators. Therefore, the spatial estimation of SOCS can be successfully determined with up-to-date machine learning algorithms only using remote sensing predictor variables. Reliable estimation of SOCS in wetlands and surrounding lands can help understand policy and decision makers the importance of wetlands in mitigating the negative impacts of global warming.

Soil salinity assessment of a natural pasture using remote sensing techniques in central Anatolia, Turkey.

Soil salinity is a major land degradation process reducing biological productivity in arid and semi-arid regions. Therefore, its effective monitoring and management is inevitable. Recent developments in remote sensing technology have made it possible to accurately identify and effectively monitor soil salinity. Hence, this study determined salinity levels of surface soils in 2650 ha agricultural and natural pastureland located in an arid region of central Anatolia, Turkey. The relationship between electrical conductivity (EC) values of 145 soil samples and the dataset created using Landsat 5 TM satellite image was investigated. Remote sensing dataset for 23 variables, including visible, near infrared (NIR) and short-wave infrared (SWIR) spectral ranges, salinity, and vegetation indices were created. The highest correlation between EC values and remote sensing dataset was obtained in SWIR1 band (r = -0.43). Linear regression analysis was used to reveal the relationship between six bands and indices selected from the variables with the highest correlations. Coefficient of determination (R2 = 0.19) results indicated that models obtained using satellite image did not provide reliable results in determining soil salinity. Microtopography is the major factor affecting spatial distribution of soil salinity and caused heterogeneous distribution of salts on surface soils. Differences in salt content of soils caused heterogeneous distribution of halophytes and led to spectral complexity. The dark colored slickpots in small-scale depressions are common features of sodic soils, which are responsible for spectral complexity. In addition, low spatial resolution of Landsat 5 TM images is another reason decreasing the reliability of models in determining soil salinity.