Identification and Level Discrimination of Waterlogging Stress in Winter Wheat Using Hyperspectral Remote Sensing

Abstract

The frequent occurrence of waterlogging stress in winter wheat not only seriously affects regional food security and ecological security, but also threatens social and economic stability and sustainable development. In order to identify the waterlogging stress level of winter wheat, a waterlogging stress gradient pot experiment was set up in this research. Three factors were controlled: waterlogging stress level (control, slight waterlogging, severe waterlogging), stress duration (5 days, 10 days, 15 days) and wheat variety (YF4, JM31, JM38). Leaf and canopy hyperspectral data were measured by using ASD Field Spec3 and Gaiasky-mini2 imaging spectrometer, respectively. The data were collected from the first waterlogging day of winter wheat. The sunny and windless weather was selected and measured every 7 days until the wheat was mature. Combined with vegetation index, normalized mean distance and spectral derivative difference entropy, if winter wheat was under waterlogging stress was monitored and stress level was identified. The results showed that: 1) the spectral response characteristics of winter wheat under waterlogging stress changed significantly in RW, RE, NIR and 1650－1800 nm region, which may be due to the sensitivity of these regions to physiological parameters affecting the spectral response characteristics, such as pigment, nutrient, leaf internal structure, etc; 2) the simple ratio pigment index SRPI was the optimal vegetation index for identifying the waterlogging stress of winter wheat. The excellent performance of this vegetation index may come from its extreme sensitivity to the epoxidation state and photosynthetic efficiency of the xanthophyll cycle pigment; 3) the red light absorption valley (RW: 640－680 nm) region was the optimal region for identifying waterlogging stress level. In RW region, waterlogging stress level of winter wheat could be determined by the spectral derivative difference entropy at heading, flowering and filling stages. The greater the level of waterlogging stress, the greater the spectral derivative difference entropy. This may be due to the fact that the RW region was more sensitive to pigment content, and the spectral derivative difference entropy could reduce the effects of spectral noise and background. This study could provide a new method for monitoring waterlogging stress, and would have a good application prospect in the precise prevention and control of waterlogging stress. There are still shortcomings in this study, such as the difference between the pot experiment and the actual field environment, the lack of independent experimental verification, etc. Next research could add pot and field experiments, combine with cross-validation, to further verify the feasibility of this research method.

Keywords

• hyperspectral remote sensing
• waterlogging stress
• vegetation index
• spectral derivative difference entropy
• winter wheat