Internship experiences Marnix Van den Brande

In the context of the Master Geo-Information Science at Wageningen University, I researched the preparation of a nitrogen balance for the Making Sense trial field in 2015. During the growing season, I measured the spectral crop reflections with the CropScan every week within 8 plots. , the Leaf Area Index with the LAI-2000, the chlorophyll concentration with the Minolta SPAD-502 and the Dualex and the nitrate concentration with the Horiba instrument. In addition, monitoring wells and rhizons were installed so that we could also measure the nitrate concentration in the groundwater and the unsaturated zone (25, 50 and 75 cm). In addition, weekly samples were taken and analyzed of the nitrogen concentration in the top 20cm of the soil with the Nitracheck. All these measurements in combination with assumptions based on (scientific) literature have led to an accurate approximation of the nitrogen balance for the plots within this plot. {Marnix} During this internship, I gained much more insight into precision agriculture and the applications and the possibilities of precision farming. For example, I worked with the Fritzmeier Isaria Sensor data to gain insight into the nitrogen content in the plant. Moreover, this internship has given me more insight into the most efficient fertilization method and how fertilization can be combined with the spatial variability in soil properties.