Abstract
Spectral-based vegetation indices (VI) have been shown to be good
proxies of grapevine stem water potential (Ψstem), potentially assisting
in irrigation-decision making of commercial vineyards. However, VI-Ψstem
correlations are mostly reported at the leaf or canopy scales using
sensors attached to leaves or very-high-spatial resolution images
derived from sensors mounted on small airplanes or drones. Here, for the
first time, we take advantage of the high spatial resolution (3-m),
near-daily images acquired from Planet’s nano-satellites constellation
to derive VI-Ψstem correlations at the vineyard scale. Weekly Ψstem were
measured along the growing season of 2017 in six vines in 81 commercial
vineyards and in 60 pairs of vines in a 2.4 ha experimental vineyard in
Israel. The clip application programming interface (API), provided by
Planet, and Google Earth Engine platform were used to derive spatially
continuous time series of four VIs: GNDVI, NDVI, EVI, and SAVI in the 82
vineyards. Results show that per-week multivariable linear models using
variables extracted from VI time series successfully tracked spatial
variations in Ψstem across the experimental vineyard (Pearson’s-r =
0.45–0.84: N=60). A simple linear regression model enabled monitoring
seasonal changes in Ψstem along the growing season in the vineyard (r =
0.80–0.82). Planet VIs and seasonal Ψstem data from the 82 vineyards
were used to derive a ‘global’ model for in-season monitoring of Ψstem
at the vineyard-level (r = 0.81: RMSE = 17.5%: N=970). The ‘global’
model, which requires only a few VI variables extracted from Planet
images, may be used for real-time weekly assessment of Ψstem in
Mediterranean vineyards, substantially reducing expenses of conventional
monitoring efforts.